Time After Time
by autumnrose2010
Summary: Anastasia finds herself in the twenty-first century, where she falls in love with another time traveler from an even earlier century.
1. Arrival

She blinked in confusion as her mother gently shook her awake in the middle of the night. She couldn't have been asleep for more than a couple of hours at most. Why was she being awakened so soon?

"They are going to take us to a safer place," her mother whispered.

Rubbing her eyes sleepily, she grabbed her pillow and joined the rest of her family. It soon became obvious that they were all being herded into the basement. Once there, they were lined up against the wall. Three servants and the doctor. Her parents. Her three older sisters, Olga, Tatiana, and Maria. Her frail, sickly younger brother, Alexei.

The man with the hard, cold eyes was speaking. "I finally have my orders," he said. "I am to execute you all."

The sound of gunshots and screams quickly drowned out that of the truck motor running outside. She saw her father fall to the floor and lie motionless, blood oozing from his head. Alexei lay beside him, twitching and moaning. Even the dog lay in a pool of blood. As someone ran at her with a bayonet, her final thoughts were of her brother. _But what about Alexei and his bleeding problem? Even a tiny cut would be enough to kill him...he hasn't a chance against bullets and bayonets..._

* * *

><p>She discovered that she was standing on a hard edge holding to what seemed to be a concrete block and was shocked to realize that she was actually on the side of a bridge with cars whizzing past many feet below her. At least, she guessed that they must be cars, although they looked very different from any cars she had ever seen, and went much faster as well.<p>

"No! Don't do it! Don't jump!" She turned her head to see a man running toward her, shouting in English. He was tall and slender, with longish, slightly curly medium brown hair, dark brown eyes, and a moustache. He looked vaguely familiar to her. She felt sure that she had seen his face in a history book once. _But how could that be, when he was here now?_

"But I wasn't going to jump," she told him.

"What on earth are you doing there, then?"

"I...I have no idea." She looked around, perplexed. "Where are the others? I'm not even in Russia anymore, am I?"

"Hardly." The man laughed. "We're a long way from Russia. Come on, let's get you down from there before you fall." His strong hands supported and guided her over the concrete rail. She felt dizzy with relief once she was standing on the bridge.

"My car's this way. We'd better hurry. This bridge gets a lot of traffic sometimes." Obediently, she followed him back to his car, which was parked just beyond the bridge.

"Your car is truly amazing," she told him, gazing in awe at the assortment of buttons and dials on the dashboard.

He shrugged. "It's just a Toyota."

"Just a _what?"_

"A Toyota. That's the make of the car. It's made by a company in Japan."

"Japan?"

"A country in the Far East. Surely you've heard of it?"

"Of course I've heard of Japan!" she snapped.

He blinked, taken aback.

"I just didn't realize that they made cars there," she added, more kindly.

"Why don't you tell me the last thing you remember before you found yourself on the bridge," he suggested.

"They woke us up in the middle of the night and made us go downstairs. Then they told us that we were going to die and started shooting at us. They shot my father...oh, dear God, my father is dead..."

Suddenly she was sobbing uncontrollably. He put his arms around her awkwardly and patted her on the shoulder. "It's all right, sweetheart. You're safe now. No one's going to hurt you here."


	2. Making Friends

When George first saw the young woman in the white nightgown on the bridge, he assumed that she must be a prostitute or drug dealer, perhaps an escapee from a mental ward or juvenile facility. As soon as he saw her up close, he realized that all his assumptions had been wrong. She looked entirely too neat, too clean, too healthy, too..._intelligent. _He also recognized the lost look in her eyes because it had once been in his own.

Now in the shelter of his car, he listened with deepening sympathy as her story unfolded.

"_Who _killed your father, sweetheart?"

"The Reds. The Bolsheviks. They killed my father, my mother, my sisters, Alexei, and...and they killed me."

What he had suspected might be true had just been confirmed.

"You're one of us, then," he said quietly.

"Are you with the Whites?"

"The Whites?"

"You know...the White Russians."

"I haven't the faintest idea what you're talking about, but no, I'm not Russian. I'm English." He smiled and patted her knee. "Tell you what. Why don't I take you somewhere where we can talk, and I'll explain what I meant."

He took her back to his apartment because he didn't know what else to do. He led her inside and motioned for her to sit on the sofa, then sat beside her.

"It occurs to me that we don't even know each other's names yet," he said with a smile.

"I am the Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova." Her voice was almost a whisper.

"What a lovely name! Mine's a bit simpler. It's George. George Boleyn." _Why did that sound familiar?_

"How old are you, Anastasia?"

"Seventeen last month."

"So very young," he said softly. "You see, Anastasia...how can I put this...upon death, sometimes one goes not to an afterlife but simply returns to earth in a different time period. That's what happened to me, my sister, and our friend, and I think that it must have happened to you as well."

"But...why?"

"I truly don't know. My brother-in-law, Henry, has a theory that universes parallel to our own might exist, worlds that are very similar to this one but existing in different time dimensions, and that physical death may open the doorway to one of these alternate worlds."

Anastasia didn't care about parallel universes or different time dimensions. All she cared about was finding her family.

"But what about the rest of my family? Where are they now?"

"I don't know, sweetheart, but I promise you, I'll do everything I can to help you find them." He patted her knee reassuringly.

"If you don't mind my asking, how did you die?" asked Anastasia.

"I was beheaded."

"How terrible! But why?"

"I was falsely accused of having sexual relations with my sister, the Queen of England."

All of a sudden, Anastasia realized why his name had sounded so familiar to her.

"You're Anne Boleyn's brother!"

"None other." He grinned.

"I don't believe it!" She seemed to have momentarily forgotten her current situation.

"Are you telling me that Anne Boleyn is alive in this world?"

"Very much so. She lives nearby with her husband and children."

"Can I meet her?"

"Certainly." George laughed, amused by her eagerness. "Why don't you tell me more about _your _family?"

"My father is..._was..._Tsar Nicholas, and my mother was the Tsarina, Alexandra. I had three older sisters, Olga, Tatiana, and Maria, and a younger brother, Alexei. When the Bolsheviks took over, they forced my father to abdicate, and we had to move into the Ipatiev House. We were staying there when...when..."

George squeezed her hand. 'It's all right, sweetheart."

"My grandmother was English, too. Her name was Alice and her mother was Queen Victoria."

"That's great! You're probably distantly related to Henry and his children then. Were you and your parents very close?"

"I was very close to both of them, especially my father. I was his favorite daughter. Were you close to your father as well?"

George looked sad. "My father cared more about his ambitions than he did about his own children. Even when Anne and I were sentenced to die, all he cared about was keeping his dukedom."

"I'm so sorry." Anastasia felt awkward.

"It's all right. I've moved beyond it and forgiven him. We both have."

"You seem such a kind man. Are you..._were _you married?"

"I was, once." George's eyes had a faraway look. "Her name was Jane Parker. She was jealous of the close relationship I shared with Anne, so she claimed that Anne and I were having sex. That was what led to my being condemned to death."

"How dreadful!" Anastasia was shocked. "Did you really love her, George?"

"Yes, I really loved her," he said quietly.

"Oh, George, that is just so sad. I hope that experience didn't put you off marriage for good."

"Of _course _it didn't!" George laughed heartily. Anastasia struggled to suppress a yawn.

"Poor girl, I know you must be exhausted after all you've been through."

Anastasia laid her head on his shoulder and was asleep within minutes. He gently picked her up, carried her into his bedroom, laid her on the bed, and covered her with a quilt before returning to the living room.


	3. A Rude Awakening

When George turned his computer on and googled Anastasia, he was amazed at the wealth of information that appeared on the screen. As he began to read the first Wikipedia article he found, he began to sob quietly. He gave himself a few minutes to regain his composure, forced himself to finish reading the article, and then looked up several others. He spent several hours gathering information. Then he turned the computer off and went to the bedroom, where he gingerly opened the door and looked in on her.

In sleep she looked even younger and more vulnerable than she had before. Tears streamed down George's face as he saw her wavy brown hair falling over the pillow, watched her chest move gently up and down. _Seventeen last month...so very young... _He longed to gather her into his arms and hold her, to comfort and protect her, but they had only just met, and he didn't want to frighten her. After awhile he went back to the living room, where he spent a restless night on the sofa.

As dawn approached, he heard her scream and hurried to the bedroom to find her cowering under the bed, her blue eyes wide with terror. She moved further under the bed and motioned for him to join her.

"It's the Bolsheviks! They've found me!" she whispered frantically.

"Oh no, no, sweetheart. That was just the garbage truck. It comes at this time to empty the dumpster every week. It _does _make an awful lot of noise though, doesn't it?" He helped her out from under the bed. "There are no Bolsheviks any more, I promise you."

"But where did they go?"

"They were overthrown in nineteen ninety-one. Your people finally have their country back, sweetheart. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is no more. It's simply Russia now, as it was before."

"But...after seventy-three _years? _Why did it take so _long?" _Anastasia began to cry.

"I honestly don't know, sweetie. There were a couple of world wars, and then a cold war that lasted a very long time with arms races and competition with space programs and Olympics and such. But it's all over with now." Anastasia was sobbing hard now, and George comforted her as he had wanted to the previous night.

"So they have another tsar now besides my father?" she asked after awhile.

"Oh no, the monarchy's gone now. They're a democracy with a prime minister. His name's Vladimir Putin."

"But how can they get along without a tsar?"

"Quite well, actually." George chuckled. "We're going to have to go clothes shopping for you soon, you know."

Anastasia's eyes sparkled. George was amazed at the abrupt change in her mood until he remembered how young she was; then he laughed indulgently.

"I had a feeling that would cheer you up. Come to think of it, I'll ask my sister to come along as well. She's much better at that kind of thing than I am."

"I'm going shopping with Anne Boleyn!" Anastasia sang as she danced around the room.

George laughed. "Let's have some breakfast first, all right? I make a pretty good omelet if I do say so myself."

"Thank you very much. That was delicious," Anastasia said politely after they had eaten.

"Why, you're very welcome." George was completely charmed. "You're going to have to borrow some of my clothes. You obviously can't go out in _that." _

Anastasia looked down at her nightgown in distaste. "I was wearing it when I died. I shall burn it," she said quietly.

The clothes were much too big, of course. Anastasia rolled the legs of the jeans way up and fastened the belt in the last notch; even so, the jeans sagged on her waist. The hem of the t-shirt came almost down to her knees. After glowering at her reflection in the mirror for a few seconds, she started giggling hysterically. George joined in.

"You realize the urgency," he commented.

"Oh, absolutely," she said when she could speak again.

"Come on," he said, patting her shoulder affectionately. "Let's go introduce you to Anne."


	4. I Hope You Dance

"Mommy, Uncle George is coming, and there's a lady with him," Elizabeth announced from her perch beside the window.

Anne had just finished nursing Jonathan and put him on her shoulder to burp him. She glanced out the window at the teenage girl in the oversized t-shirt and baggy jeans who accompanied George. Had her brother taken pity on a transient? Likely she was a runaway; if so, her parents were probably worried sick about her.

"Anne, this is Anastasia Romanova," George said. "I found her on a bridge yesterday. She had...just crossed over."

Anne immediately felt ashamed about her earlier assumptions. "I'm so glad that you're all right, dear. I hope that it was relatively fast and painless for you, as it was for me."

"It wasn't that at all. There were jewels sewn into my gown and the bullets bounced right off. I was the last one to die and I saw all the others die. Someone saw me move and stabbed me with a bayonet. Right here." Anastasia showed Anne the place behind her ear where the bayonet had gone in.

"Oh, you poor dear!" Anne exclaimed.

"I told Anastasia that you would come shopping with us," George said.

"Why, of course! That wouldn't be a problem at all. It sounds like fun, doesn't it?"

Anastasia beamed. "He's adorable! May I please hold him?"

"Certainly." Anne handed Jonathan to Anastasia, who made cute noises at him. Jonathan gurgled up at her.

"You have such beautiful red hair," Anastasia told Elizabeth. "How old are you?"

Elizabeth held up three fingers.

"What a big girl you are!" Anastasia said.

In the car on the way to the mall, George asked Anastasia whether or not she knew how to drive.

"There was never any need to learn, as there were always servants to take us where we needed to go," she told him.

"Most people these days consider being able to drive a necessity," George said.

"In that case I am willing to learn. Are there schools for it, then?"

"There are classes, sure, but I could teach you myself in my car, if you like."

"That might be fun," Anastasia conceded, although the sight of the vehicles whizzing by her window made her feel a bit intimidated.

When they finally arrived at the mall, Anastasia was amazed at its size. "Why, it's like a small city inside one big building," she said.

"Just wait until you see what's inside," Anne told her with a smile.

"The largest department store in Moscow doesn't have nearly as much," Anastasia said when they were all inside. George and Anne laughed.

"There's another mall only a fifteen-minute drive from here," Anne said. "I'll take you there sometime, if you like."

"Oh yes, please do!"

For Anastasia, the next several hours were sheer ecstacy as she looked over and tried on many different articles of clothing, marvelling at how different they were from the fashions of nineteen eighteen. They ate lunch at the mall, and then it was time for Elizabeth and Jonathan to take a nap, so George took them and their mother back home and returned to his apartment with Anastasia.

"We'll have to get documentation for you soon, a birth certificate and such. Henry can help with that. We'll have to falsify the birth year, of course. No one's going to believe you're really a hundred and eleven years old."

Anastasia giggled. It occurred to George that in the time period into which he had been born, she would have been considered to be well within marriageable age. Just as quickly he put the thought from his mind. He was well aware of the modern-day laws concerning such matters.

"School starts back up in a few weeks. You'll definitely need it then."

"We never went to regular school. We had our own private tutor, and it was just the five of us in one classroom. It was very important for us girls to learn languages as we were all supposed to marry foreign princes, as our mother had done. I had a bit of a crush on the Prince of Wales."

George laughed. "He abdicated the throne and married an American divorcee named Wallis Simpson."

"Maria was jealous because I was better at math than she was even though she was older. Olga and Tatiana treated me like a baby sometimes. They would get tired of me tagging along behind them and tell me to go play with Alexei. It hurt my feelings and I would get even. I used to trip them up and throw things at them."

George laughed and ruffled her hair. "I'll bet that showed them."

"I did the same thing to the servants. A few of them almost quit because of me."

"You naughty girl."

As George's apartment had only one bedroom, he knew that Anastasia couldn't stay there for very long. Henry and Anne had an extra bedroom, and George decided to ask them if Anastasia could stay with them, at least for the time being.

"Want to see something really neat?" George turned his computer on and showed her how to look up music videos on youtube. She was delighted.

"These little movies have not only color, but sound as well!"

George laughed. "Of course they have sound. That's why they're called 'music' videos."

Thinking that youtube would easily keep her occupied for awhile, George went to phone Henry and Anne with his requests.

"Of course she can stay with us, for as long as she needs to. That would be fine," Anne told him.

He returned to the living room to find Anastasia giggling hysterically.

"Can you believe there was this woman named Anna Anderson who claimed to be me? But she _couldn't _have been me, because _I'm _me!"

Of course. Wikipedia was but a short jump from youtube, especially for someone who was as bright as Anastasia obviously was.

"Anastasia, perhaps another time would be better..."

He saw the look of abject horror on her face and realized that it was too late.

"They found us buried in a forest in Siberia in nineteen ninety-one. They poured acid over us to hide who we were. Alexei and I were hacked into pieces and burned. The others were thrown down a mine shaft." She began to sob quietly.

_That's the part I didn't want you to see..._As her chest heaved with sobs, George gathered her into his arms and held her tightly.

"Can you imagine all the blood? He could never play rough like other boys...if he ever got hurt he couldn't stop bleeding...he was supposed to be the next tsar after our father..."

"I'm so sorry, so very sorry," George whispered over and over again as he rocked her as if she were a small child. After awhile she quieted and he thought she was asleep. He looked and saw that her eyes were still open.

"That wasn't really you that they found, sweetheart. That was only what was left of what used to be you. The real you is right here, right now, healthy and whole. And the same is true of the others, wherever they are."

She gave a small smile.

"I want you to hear something, Anastasia. It's a lovely song I heard earlier today. It made me think of you right away." George went back to youtube and typed in the song's title. Anastasia listened, fascinated.

_Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance  
>And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance<br>I hope you dance...  
>I hope you dance...<em>

George held his arms out to Anastasia and she went into them right away. Together they spun around and around in his living room.

"I remember dancing with my father in the palace in St. Petersburg on the three hundredth anniversary of Romanov rule. He was a bit taller than you. I only came up to here on him. But of course I was younger then as well."

George smiled, thinking about how beautiful she was, how fresh, sweet, and innocent. It was almost as if they had gone back in time and it was St. Petersburg in nineteen sixteen once again, before all the horror and tragedy had happened.

The song ended but they kept dancing.


	5. Shared Losses

As George had anticipated, Henry was able to procure the required paperwork with relative ease, and a court date was set.

"As you will be living with Henry and Anne, they must become your legal guardians so that they can register you for school and seek medical treatment for you should you ever need it. It must be that way until you turn eighteen. It's the law," George explained.

Anastasia adjusted relatively easily to life with Anne and her family. She adored Elizabeth and Jonathan, who adored her in return, and she was a lot of help with household chores. George came to visit almost every day after work, and he came every Saturday to give Anastasia driving lessons in his Toyota.

"I've become quite concerned about her," Anne told him on one such instance. "She spends so much time just sitting and watching those silent films. I'm afraid it's not healthy."

"She has to grieve for the life she lost as she adjusts to the new life she has now," George replied. "Remember all those hours we used to spend listening to CD's of sixteenth century music?"

Five small children in sailor suits played ring-around-the-rosy on the deck of their father's yacht. That was the film Anastasia watched most often by far, but there were others as well.

"Who are they?" Elizabeth asked her one day.

"That's me with my older sisters and little brother when I was a little girl like you," Anastasia told her.

"What are their names?"

"My sisters were Olga, Tatiana, and Maria, and my brother was Alexei."

"Just like Jonathan is my brother."

"That's right." Anastasia smiled. "You and Jonathan remind me a lot of myself and Alexei when we were small."

"Which one is you?"

"The next to smallest."

"You sure were little back then!"

"Yes, I was. And then I grew up, just like you will some day." _Almost. They almost let me finish growing up..._

Anne heard the girl crying for her family that night. Quietly, so as not to awaken Henry, she crept out of bed and made her way to the guest room.

"Sh, it's all right." She knelt by the bed and gently rubbed Anastasia's back.

"I just miss them so _much..."_

"I know, sweetheart."

"Alexei and I were the two youngest, and we always did everything together. I feel like half of me is missing..."

"I'm so sorry." Anne continued rubbing the girl's back. "I saw my brother die too, Anastasia."

"But he told me he was..."

"Yes. He was."

"And you actually _watched _that?"

"I couldn't help it. I had to. I stood on a chair so that I could see out the window of my cell. I watched them lead him up the steps of the scaffold. I heard his last words. I saw him kneel before the block. I watched the axe swing down. I saw the blood gush out. Then I collapsed in tears and fell from the chair."

Grief washed over Anastasia anew. "Poor, poor George...he's such a kind and sweet man..." Images came unbidden to her mind, images of George's headless body lying still and silent in the straw, of George's eyes with the awful blank stare of the dead in them.

"He cares for you a great deal, you know," Anne told her.

"Why should he, when he barely knows me?"

"He knows what you're going through, because he's been through it himself. We both have." The next morning Henry found his wife in Anastasia's bed with her arms wrapped tightly around the girl's body. Both of them were fast asleep.

Her fascination with the marvels of the twenty-first century occupied much of Anastasia's waking hours. Something called a microwave that cooked food in a fraction of the time it would take an oven. Something called a television which was pretty much devoted to the broadcast of the movies with color and sound. Something called a remote which changed channels instantly on the television with the simple pressing of a button. Central heat and air that kept the indoor temperature comfortable without the need for fans or fireplaces. Far eclipsing them all was the personal computer, of which Youtube and Wikipedia were but two of its amazing applications. Anastasia soon had both email and facebook accounts. She spent many hours on the latter searching for her family members, even trying alternative spellings of their names, with no luck.

She shared her frustrations with George the next time she saw him.

"I'm sure you'll find them some day," he said encouragingly. "It took a while for Anne and me to find one another."

"How did that happen?"

"I was sitting on a park bench one day when she and Henry visited with Elizabeth."

"I'd get quite bored sitting on a park bench all day, but if one of them happened along, it would be worth it."

"Then not long afterwards, Anne met a mutual friend of ours, Mark, playing violin at a restaurant. Mark was executed at the same time I was. He too had been accused of having an affair with Anne."

"It must have been so difficult for the three of you to get used to things like cars and telephones."

"It did take a while, but we're all quite well adjusted now. You will be too, in time. Actually, I'm amazed that you've adjusted as well as you have so far."

"I didn't come from nearly as far back in the past as you did," Anastasia pointed out.

"That's true, plus you have the advantage of your youth. You're not old like Anne and me are." He smiled cheekily.

Anastasia giggled. "You're not that old."

George patted her shoulder affectionately. "Come on. Let's go for a spin."


	6. Starting School

About a month after Anastasia's arrival, Anne took her to register for school. Having never known any school but the single room in the palace that had been devoted to the education of herself and her siblings, Anastasia was impressed by her new school's size.

"It's just like a hospital or a prison," she told Anne.

"It's certainly different from the education I received as a child as well," Anne agreed. "But I think you'll enjoy it, Anastasia. You'll be able to meet many girls your age."

"Who are really almost a century younger than me," Anastasia added. "How could I possibly hope to have anything in common with them?"

"You're a very bright girl. I'm sure you'll do fine." Anne smiled and squeezed her hand reassuringly.

To Anne and Anastasia's relief, the woman in the office who seemed to be in charge of new admissions accepted the phony documentation without question. "Please come with me," she told Anastasia.

She led Anastasia to a small room with a desk, chair, and computer. She turned the computer on and told Anastasia to sit in the chair.

"You have forty-five minutes to answer as many questions as you can," the woman said.

The test seemed quite easy to Anastasia, and she answered the questions fairly quickly. When the woman returned, she looked at the computer screen incredulously. Anastasia felt slightly worried. _But it seemed so easy..._

The woman left the room and Anastasia could hear her excited voice outside the door. "You have to see this..."

When she returned, she was accompanied by another woman. "I haven't seen one that high in a long time either," the other woman said.

"You did exceedingly well on the exam," the first woman told Anastasia. "It's a shame that this is your last year, as you would have benefited from one of our gifted programs. Fortunately, we do offer advanced placement college level courses for our seniors. I hope you'll find them challenging enough that you won't get bored."

Anastasia smiled.

The first day of the fall school term was about a week later. Anastasia watched as masses of students emerged from buses and arrived from the parking lot and began to feel very small and insignificant. With so many other students, it would have to be fairly easy to do something she had never done before in her life - blend in with the crowd and become just another one of them. Never again would anyone ever call her 'Her Imperial Highness.'

She felt a profound sense of loss coupled with an acute sense of isolation. _I don't belong here. I'm not like the others. What are they going to think when they find out how different from them I really am?_

Two girls stood near Anastasia's locker, busily chatting about something called One Direction. Anastasia asked which direction they were talking about and they nudged one another and giggled. Anastasia realized that they were laughing at her and turned away angrily.

"Hey, leave her alone, you guys," said the voice of a third girl. "I'll bet she's probably an exchange student. That's what you are, right? An exchange student?"

"Well, yes, I am." If it would help her to fit in with her peers, Anastasia would pretend to be an exchange student. After all, it wasn't all that far from the truth anyway.

"What country?" asked one of the first two girls.

"Russia."

"My great grandfather was born in Russia!" exclaimed the third girl. "He escaped after the Revolution. By the way, my name's Madison, and the others are Taylor and Cassidy."

"My name is Anastasia."

"Say something in Russian," said Cassidy.

Anastasia's eyes filled with tears. "I...I can't. I can never speak that language again," she said softly. "It was the language my family spoke, and they were all murdered."

"Oh, no! That's terrible! Did they ever catch who did it?" asked Madison.

Anastasia thought for a minute. "Eventually, yes. After a very long time."

"There's something different about you," Madison told Anastasia after Taylor and Cassidy had gone. "Your aura is different. It's as if you're somehow much older than you seem to be."

"I'm no different from anyone else," Anastasia said huffily.

"You're a Gemini, aren't you? I can tell."

"I am not! I'm Russian Orthodox."

Madison chuckled. "I was talking about your zodiac sign, silly."

Anastasia angrily stalked away.

"Wait!" Madison called after her. "Hey, look, I'm sorry. If you don't understand, I'll explain it to you."

* * *

><p>"George wants to talk to you," Anne told Anastasia that evening, handing her the phone.<p>

"Hi, Stacy! How'd it go today?" George asked after Anastasia said hello. 'Stacy' was his special nickname for her, and he was the only one who was allowed to call her that.

"Busy!" Anastasia chuckled. "I don't think I've ever done so much walking in my life!"

George laughed. "You'll get used to it, sweetheart."

"How was your day?" she asked him.

"More of the same. You wouldn't believe how many people don't know nearly as much as they think they do." George worked in the history department of the local university library, a job he seemed particularly well suited for. He had proven to be of invaluable assistance to the professors in correcting inaccuracies in textbooks. "Really, Stacy, did everything go all right for you today?"

"Academically, yes. The teachers are all very impressed with my knowledge and abilities."

"But how did it go with the other students?" he asked softly.

"What do you mean?"

"Do they treat you kindly? Have you made any new friends?"

"Well...I met this girl named Madison. She told me her great grandfather was born in Russia."

"That's great! So you've already found someone you have something in common with."

"I suppose I do, as my great grandfather was born in Russia as well. On my father's father's side, I mean." Anastasia laughed, and George joined in.

"You'll do fine, Stacy. I know you will."

Anastasia went to sleep that night thinking about how glad she had been to hear George's voice after her long, busy day. For her it had been just like nearly drowning in a turbulent sea and being thrown a life preserver just in time.


	7. Finding Alexei

Anastasia quickly adjusted to the hustle and bustle of the new school year. Her teachers and fellow students came to like her very quickly, and she swiftly learned the names of all the popular movies, TV shows, and musical groups. She ate lunch with Madison, Taylor, and Cassidy every day, and found that she seemed to share a special rapport with Madison. It was something both girls realized but neither spoke of.

The day Anastasia's fondest dream came true started out as just an ordinary day. One of her teachers sent her on an errand to the school office; she knew that to get there she had to walk past the hall where the freshman lockers were but thought nothing about that at the time. She heard a commotion in the hallway and turned to look; a larger ninth grader was tormenting a smaller ninth grader but holding his books out of his reach. She recognized the smaller ninth grader right away, and fury raced through her veins like molten lava as she stalked up to the larger ninth grader.

"You will return my brother's belongings to him right away," she demanded.

"Make me," the boy smirked.

Anastasia lifted him by the shoulders and slammed his back against the lockers, hard. He let out a yelp and dropped the books. A teacher turned her head in his direction. Anastasia snatched up the scattered books, grabbed Alexei's hand and rushed with him toward a door which she knew opened into a rarely-used storage room. Miraculously, the door was unlocked, and they both quietly slipped inside.

"Are you all right?" Anastasia asked breathlessly.

"That depends on what you mean by 'all right'," Alexei replied.

"Your hemophilia..."

"It's all right now, Nastya. My foster parents take me to the doctor for injections of clotting factors, and that keeps me from getting sick like I used to."

"Your foster parents?"

"The Robinsons. Someone saw me wondering along the side of the road and called Child Protective Services. They took me to a big building and the Robinsons came and got me."

"Do they treat you well, Alexei?"

"They're always very kind to me and give me a lot of things, but they don't believe anything I say." Alexei sighed deeply. "I told them that I was the tsarevich and they took me to see a psychiatrist. He said that I was suffering from delusions of grandeur and threatened to put me in a mental hospital. I can't even talk about it because when I do everyone thinks I'm crazy. But I know who I am, and I know who you are, too."

Anastasia felt very sad.

"Every morning before I leave for school I have to take a pill. Anti-psychotic medication, it's called. I pretend to swallow it and keep it under my tongue, and as soon as I get to school every day I go in the bathroom and flush it down the toilet."

Anastasia grinned conspiratorially.

"I'm awfully glad to see you, Nastya. Have you seen any of the others?"

Anastasia sighed. "No, unfortunately."

"I guess it's just the two of us, then." Alexei looked sad. "How are things for you, Nastya?"

"All right. I live with a nice couple named Henry and Anne. They have a little girl and a baby boy. Anne's brother George found me on the side of a bridge. He thought that I was going to jump."

"Anne and George are from another time too, Alexei, just like you and I are. They both died in sixteenth century England and came back in this time period."

"You're lucky," Alexei said.

"I know." There was an awkward pause. "You have to come live with us, Alexei. We should be together as we always have been."

"The courts say I have to live with the Robinsons until I'm eighteen," Alexei said glumly.

"We'll have to think of something. There has to be a way." Anastasia glanced at the door. "We should be getting back to class now. We're already way late. Tell the teacher you got sick and had to go to the clinic."

Alexei hurried down the hallway much more quickly than he should have, which alarmed his sister.

"Alexei, _slow down!" _she shouted, but it was too late, as he had already tripped over an uneven spot in the carpet. Anastasia realized that she would never reach him in time to break his fall and panicked, but suddenly there was another set of arms reaching out to steady him.

"Careful, there." One look at the young man's face took Anastasia's breath away. He was handsome, with a narrow face, longish dark brown hair, and a neatly trimmed moustache and beard, but his most amazing feature was his eyes. They were clear blue and seemed to peer right into Anastasia's soul. She felt herself shiver involuntarily.

"Thank you so much. My brother could have been seriously injured if he had fallen."

"No problem at all." The young man's voice was smooth, deep, and rich. The voice of a late-night DJ for a jazz radio station. He grinned, showing the whitest teeth Anastasia had ever seen. Her heart began to thump madly.

"I...um...my name is Anastasia," she stammered.

"It's very nice to meet you, Anastasia. I'm Gregory. Gregory Ross-Peyton."


	8. Journey To The Past

That evening after dinner, George took Anastasia out for ice cream.

"Anne told me you met your brother today," George commented.

"Yes." Anastasia licked a drop of ice cream that was about to drip onto her clothes.

"Well, how did it go?"

"All right, I guess."

"You sure don't sound very happy about it."

"I'm both happy and sad. Happy that he's alive and safe. Sad that we can't live together as we always did before. He told me that he has to live with his foster parents until he's eighteen."

"How old is he now?"

"Fourteen."

"Four years isn't that terribly long."

"It seems like forever to me."

George patted her knee sympathetically. "It'll pass before you know it."

"If we talk to Child Protective Services, perhaps they'd let Alexei move in with Anne and Henry too."

George frowned. "That's a lot of beaurocracy to go through, Stacy. And it doesn't always go that well." He smiled. "At least you can see him at school."

"Not that often. Freshman lunch comes first in the day and senior lunch comes last."

"Oh well." George patted her knee again. "You could invite him to visit you at home from time to time. Perhaps he could even come out for ice cream with us sometimes."

Anastasia was all smiles. "That would be great!"

George grinned. "That's my girl."

"I'm not _your _girl," Anastasia said shortly, her mind full of Gregory Ross-Peyton.

"Why, of course not." George immediately looked penitant. "I didn't mean it that way at all. I'm sorry."

"No, _I'm _sorry," Anastasia said softly. "That sounded unkind. I owe you a lot, George. If it weren't for you I might have fallen off that bridge. I don't know what would have happened to me then. I don't know how many chances you get."

"I imagine you get as many chances as you need."

"I still wouldn't want to tempt fate," Anastasia replied.

"Neither would I. Life's too precious."

For the first time in weeks, Anastasia had a nightmare that night. She woke up the following morning with only the vaguest memories of it. She and Alexei were with Gregory on a mist-enshrouded bridge. That was all she remembered, besides the sinking feeling of dread she had experienced.

When she arrived at school the next morning, Gregory was waiting for her. He smiled and fell into step beside her.

"You're not from around here, are you?" he asked pleasantly.

"I'm a Russian exchange student." That was her story, and she was sticking to it.

"Ah, Russia. I lived there for awhile myself. Not for very long. It was too small for me."

"You're the first person I've ever heard to describe Russia as 'small' before."

"It's just endless acres of farmland and forest. A river called Moskva and a park called Gorky."

Anastasia was indignant. "The architecture, the cathedrals, the museums..."

"Oh yes. Those too." He made an exaggerated face, and Anastasia had to laugh in spite of herself.

"Say, what's with your brother? You really freaked when he tripped and almost fell yesterday."

"He has hemophilia. He has to be very careful."

"Oh, I see." Anastasia noticed that his arm has casually encircled her shoulders. She decided to let it stay there. "Is it just the two of you, then?"

"We have three older sisters as well. They're...still in Russia. Do you have any brothers or sisters?"

"I had an older brother, once. He fell into the river and then got sick and died."

"I'm terribly sorry."

"It's all right. Say, are you going to the game Friday night?"

"Of course!"

"Some friends of mine are having a party afterwards. I'd be honored if you would go with me."

"That sounds like fun. I'll think about it and let you know."

"You must be one of the five girls in this school he hasn't slept with yet," commented a classmate after Gregory had left. _Probably just jealous, _Anastasia thought, ignoring the girl.

"We missed you yesterday," Madison told Anastasia at lunchtime.

"I was with my brother."

"I thought you said your family was...you know..."

"I just found out Alexei's still alive. He goes to school here too."

Madison's jaw dropped. "You have a brother named Alexei?"

"Well, yes. What's so weird about that?"

"He's hemophiliac, isn't he?"

"How'd _you _know that?"

Madison shrugged. "I just thought he might be, that's all."

"I saw you walking with Gregory Ross-Peyton this morning," Taylor said. "I know it's none of my business, but if I were you, I wouldn't get involved with him. Do you have any idea how many girls he's slept with?"

"Someone else said the same thing to me this morning. I thought she was just jealous."

"I don't think he has a soul," Madison put in.

"But of course he does. Everyone has a soul," Cassidy said.

"I don't think Gregory Ross-Peyton does," Madison continued. "He has no aura. Everyone else does, even inanimate objects do. But he doesn't."

"You and your kooky New Age theories," Cassidy smirked.

"Some day you'll see I'm right." Madison's voice held a warning note. "He may have had one once but sold it or exchanged it for something. Ever hear the story of Faust and Mephistopheles? I think his is kind of the same."

Anastasia reflected that sharing lunch with her three friends reminded her very much of long ago meals shared with Olga, Tatiana, and Maria.

"Are you all right, Anastasia? You look a bit sad," said Taylor.

"She misses Gregory already," Cassidy teased.

"I do not either!" Anastasia grinned and kicked her under the table. "It's just that sometimes the three of you remind me an awful lot of my sisters."

Madison gave her a sympathetic hug. The rest of the meal passed in silence.

When Anastasia logged onto Facebook that evening, she found a friend request from Gregory. She only considered it for a moment before clicking on the 'accept' button. _Those eyes..._

The next morning, Madison was waiting for Anastasia with an amazed expression on her face. She grabbed Anastasia's arm and led her to the same storage room Anastasia had led Alexei to. Once the two girls were inside the storage room, Madison showed Anastasia the piece of paper she was holding. On it was the photograph she had printed out. It was a photograph of Anastasia at the age of fifteen, at the three hundredth anniversary of Romanov rule in nineteen sixteen.

"You really _are _her, aren't you?"

Anastasia didn't say anything.

"How'd you _do _it? How'd you come back?"

"I have no idea. One minute I was in the basement of the Ipatiev House, and the next I was on the bridge where George found me."

"George?"

"George Boleyn. That's a whole different story. I'll tell you about it sometime."

"Listen, Anastasia. I have something that belongs to you. It's a music box. My great grandfather worked in the kitchen at the palace in St. Petersburg. He saved it for you when you had to leave it behind when you were forced to leave the palace and go to Siberia. It's been in the family all these years."

"My grandfather told me that the Soviet press lied to them and said that only your father had been killed, that the rest of your family was in hiding somewhere. Years later they found out that the whole family had been slaughtered. Even then my great grandfather refused to give up. He kept insisting that you had escaped and that when he saw you again he would give the music box back to you."

"Who was your great grandfather?"

"His name was Dimitri."

Anastasia felt as if she had just been punched in the stomach. "How well I remember him! We used to have such fun playing pranks on the cook. We must have driven him crazy. Please tell me he's still alive!"

Madison shook her head. "I never knew him. He died in nineteen eighty-seven, when he was eighty-seven years old. After he died, the music box passed down to my grandfather, who gave it to me. Can you come over for dinner tonight? I'll give it to you then."

"Yes, of course..."

Anastasia recognized the music box right away. Her grandmother had given it to her on the night of the three hundredth anniversary of Romanov rule. She turned the knob and opened the lid and, sure enough, it played the same tune she remembered.

"I can't believe it..." she whispered. "Where is your great grandfather buried, Madison?"

"In the cemetery behind the Russian Orthodox church."

"I want to go there."

Moments later, the two girls stood in the cemetery beside Dimitri's grave. It hit Anastasia like a ton of bricks. Her past life was gone forever. All the people she had known before had grown old and died. They were forever lost to her. She felt a deeply profound sense of loss.

"Dimitri," she whispered, kneeling beside the grave and gently sweeping a few scattered leaves from it. "Thank you for saving my music box for me." In her mind she saw his sparkling eyes, his dimpled cheeks, his mischievous smile. She could never imagine Dimitri as an old man. Dimitri dead. A sob rose in her throat. "I'll never forget you, Dimitri." She kissed her fingers and gently touched them to the headstone. "I'll always remember you as you were when I knew you."

She was crying hard now. She looked at Madison and saw that her friend was crying too. The two girls embraced one another and cried together in the cemetery behind the Russian Orthodox church.


	9. Said The Spider To The Fly

"My Grandmama gave it to me on the night of the three hundredth anniversary of Romanov rule," Anastasia told George. "Oh, George, it was so magnificent! How I wish you could have been there! There were ever so many people, and the ballroom was so bright and full of music, and I danced with my Papa, and my Grandmama hugged me and kissed me and gave me this music box. Listen!" Anastasia opened the music box and the familiar tune began to play.

_Someone holds me safe and warm  
>Horses prance through a silver storm...<em>

George thought about the thin sprinkle of faint freckles dotting the bridge of her nose, the way her nose wrinkled when she laughed. _How I long to be the one holding her safe and warm, _he thought to himself. _But I can't tell her that...not yet._

* * *

><p>"Are you sure you don't want to come?" Madison asked Anastasia. The Friday night game had just ended, and Madison, Taylor, and Cassidy were about to go out for pizza.<p>

"No, thanks. It's all right. You three go on ahead. George is picking me up."

"All right." Madison sounded reluctant. Anastasia felt a stab of guilt for lying to her friends, but she knew how they felt about Gregory Ross-Peyton.

When she saw him standing in the designated place, her heart quickened a beat. In the stadium lights, he looked even more handsome than usual. His hair was slicked back, and he wore a cologne that smelled simply wonderful.

"Well, are you ready to go?" One look at his winning grin and Anastasia's heart melted. He took her hand and led her to his car, which was much newer-looking and fancier than George's Toyota.

"Your car is so nice!" Anastasia exclaimed.

"Thank you. I take good care of it." He gallantly opened the door for her before getting in himself.

"What kind of music do you like?" he asked.

"It doesn't matter. Anything's fine." He put the radio on a soft rock station.

The party was so loud that Anastasia could hear it before they actually reached the house. The front door opened onto a confusing and frightening scene. The interior of the room was so dark that all she could see were faint shadows outlined against the near blackness. The air was heavy with smoke which had a sweetish smell she couldn't identify. The music was ear-blasting loud, and everyone seemed to be paired up into couples who were practically glued to one another.

"Come on." Gregory took Anastasia's hand and led her to a rickety, threadbare sofa. Someone handed Gregory an oddly-shaped cigarette. Anastasia guessed that that must be the source of the sweetish-smelling smoke. Gregory inhaled deeply, then offered the cigarette to Anastasia, who shook her head.

"Come on! Loosen up," Gregory urged. When she gave no response, he shook his head in disgust and handed the cigarette to someone else. Gregory put his arm around Anastasia and pulled her back against the sofa. When he kissed her, she felt him try to slide his tongue into her mouth, and at the same time, his hand began to massage one of her breasts. Shocked and upset, she quickly moved away from him.

"What's wrong, baby? Don't you like me?"

"I...I hardly know you," Anastasia stammered.

"Come here and let me show you how to have a good time," he insisted.

Anastasia looked at him with wide, frightened eyes. "I just want to go home," she said.

"Aw, baby, the party's just begun. Don't be a spoilsport," he begged.

Anastasia looked around at all the other dark, shadowy figures. Every one of them seemed totally oblivious to her and her situation. She decided that perhaps Gregory was right after all. Maybe she _was _acting like a spoilsport.

A fast song began to play, and Gregory reached for her hand. She danced with him for a little while, and then they changed partners. After awhile she noticed that he didn't even seem to be in the room at all anymore. _Maybe he just went to the bathroom or something. _When he still didn't appear after what seemed to her to be a long time, she got worried that perhaps he had driven away and left her there. He _had _seemed a bit upset with her before.

Frantic, she moved out of the room and into the hallway. The door to a bedroom was partially ajar, and she pushed it the rest of the way open. There in the dim light stood Gregory with his pants down around his ankles and a girl kneeling before him. The girl seemed to have a part of Gregory's anatomy in her mouth and was licking and sucking on it. Gregory's eyes met Anastasia's for just a split second.

Shocked and sickened, Anastasia ran from the house as fast as she could. Tears flowed from her eyes, and her chest was convulsed with sobs as she headed for the convenience store they had passed on the way to the party. She obviously couldn't have called George from inside the house. It simply wouldn't have done for him to find her at _that _kind of party.

"What happened?" George's face and voice registered such concern that Anastasia felt guilty. Suddenly she found the entire story spilling from her lips. George's expression changed from concern to dismay, then to anger, and finally to relief tinged with disappointment.

"You did the right thing by running away, Anastasia," he told her. "Still, I'm concerned that you went in the first place. Did you tell Anne and Henry that you were going to a party after the game?"

"Well...no..."

"You should have told them, Anastasia." She heard the gentle reproach in his voice and became defensive.

"I'm almost an adult. I don't have to account for where I am every second of the day and night to anyone."

"Of course you don't, dear. But Anne and I care about you and want you to be safe."

"I can look out for myself just fine," she retorted.

That night she cried herself to sleep.

Sunday afternoon she checked her Facebook account and found a long, elegant apology from Gregory. She deleted the message without reading it and then removed him from her friend list.

Monday morning he was waiting to walk her to class as usual. _What nerve! _she thought, pointedly ignoring him.

"Anastasia, wait!" he called, running to catch up to her.

"Go away, Gregory."

"Please, just let me explain..."

"There's nothing to explain."

The next morning he was waiting to meet her again, this time holding a dozen red roses and a box of chocolates. Her mouth automatically began to water at the sight of the chocolates.

"Anastasia, please listen to me," he said. She hesitated, staring at the box of chocolates. "That stuff they gave me to smoke was much stronger than the stuff they usually have. I didn't realize it was that strong until after I had already smoked it. Stuff that powerful makes me lose all control of myself and I don't even realize what I'm doing until it's too late. That girl is nothing to me, Anastasia. I'd never even seen her before, don't even know her name. She came on to me, and since I was under the influence of that powerful stuff, I couldn't resist her."

"You shouldn't be smoking that stuff at all, Gregory." She tried to avoid his eyes, as they seemed to have a magnetic pull on her that she intuitively disliked.

"I know I shouldn't, but it's just...it's peer pressure, Anastasia. The guys I hang out with smoke it and I'm afraid they'll think I'm not cool if I don't too. I'll give it up, though, if you want me to. I promise I will."

"You should give it up for _yourself, _Gregory. It isn't good for you and it makes you do stupid things."

"Listen, I want to make it up to you. How about dinner at my place this Friday night? You can bring your brother as well. He seems like a great kid and I'd like to get to know him better. It'll be just the three of us. Please, Anastasia?" His voice was so soothing that she almost felt as if she was floating on it.

"I truly am sorry. I would never lie to you. Look into my eyes and you'll see how sorry I am. Look into my eyes, Anastasia..."

She did, and would soon come to regret it bitterly.

* * *

><p>Anastasia saw the look of surprised delight on Alexei's face and smiled herself. Whatever Gregory planned to serve them, it certainly smelled appealing.<p>

"Welcome to my humble abode." Gregory bowed deeply to them. "Everything's ready. Help yourselves. I hope you enjoy it."

"Aren't you going to eat too?"

"Oh, no. I had a late lunch and I'm still stuffed. It's all for you. I'll just have a glass of water."

"But I'll feel guilty..." Anastasia saw Alexei lick his lips hungrily and wavered.

"There's absolutely no reason for you to feel that way. Perhaps I'll have some later on if my appetite returns."

Unable to resist the tantalizing aroma anymore, Anastasia and Alexei did as Gregory requested. After a few bites, Alexei yawned, and Anastasia noticed with alarm that his eyelids were also drooping, and that she herself felt unaccountably sleepy as well.

"Don't go to sleep, Alexei!" She shook his arm, but it was too late. His head hit the tabletop with a soft thud, and a moment later, Anastasia's did the same.


	10. Betrayed

Anastasia opened her eyes to find that she was sitting in the back seat of Gregory's car, and that her hands and feet were bound. Alexei sat beside her, his hands and feet also bound. In the front seat sat Gregory, smiling calmly at them both. It was the middle of the night, and the car was parked to the side of a mist-covered bridge, the same bridge Anastasia had seen in her dream.

Anastasia's cell phone was in her back pocket, and she knew that if she leaned on it a certain way the telephone in George's apartment would ring with nobody being able to tell.

"Well, did you two have a nice little nap?" Gregory asked casually.

"You drugged us!"

Gregory smirked. "You should be grateful it wasn't cyanide. That's what they gave me."

Icy fingers gripped Anastasia's heart as she finally realized who he really was.

"How'd you come back as a high school student when you're really much older?"

"I can come back as whoever the hell I damn well please." He laughed cruelly. "I have special powers, remember? How many times would your precious little brother here have bled to death internally if not for me?"

"You never really cared about him! You just liked all the attention you got and how dependent on you our mother was!"

"Your mother." He chuckled softly. "Yes, the rumors were true, my dear little Grand Duchess. I _did _fuck your mother. She was a great little fuck, too. I should know. I've had some great fucks in my time."

"That's a _lie! _She would _never _have betrayed my father, not even with you!"

"People aren't always as they seem, are they?" Gregory asked softly. _No, they sure aren't..._

"What are you going to do to us?"

"I have a prophecy to finish fulfilling. One made by yours truly almost a hundred years ago. I warned you of what would happen if I were to be killed by aristocrats, _your _people. Nobody believed me and so it happened. I was one tough son of a bitch to kill, too. The poison didn't work. The bullets didn't work. In the end they had to fucking _drown _me." He sneered and pushed his face right into Anastasia's and she noticed for the first time how very cold his blue eyes were, colder even than those of the man who had read her family's death sentence in the basement of the Ipatiev House. _I don't think he has a soul..._

"I thought that the Bolsheviks had finished you all off back in nineteen eighteen, but as it turned out, I was wrong." He sneered at Alexei. "Not that there would have been any need to have wasted bullets and bayonets on _you, _when we both know that a swift kick to the abdomen is all it would have taken to have finished you off. But I guess they didn't know that, did they?"

Anastasia was so angry she could barely speak. "Rot in _hell, _you...you..."

"Can't think of a bad enough word, huh?" Gregory laughed. "I knew that that would get a rise out of you."

Frustrated that her hands were bound so she couldn't strike him, Anastasia had to settle for glaring at him as hatefully as she could.

"Now it's time to get down to business, which is that one of you is about to become fish food. It really should be both of you, but since I happen to be in a good mood today, I have decided to let one of you live. I'll let..." His pointed finger vacillated between Anastasia and Alexei, finally landing on Anastasia. "_you_ decide which one of you is going for a swim."

"Take me," Anastasia said calmly.

"No, _please, _Nastya." Big tears welled in Alexei's eyes. "He can take me. It's all right. I've always known that I wasn't meant to live very long anyway."

"You know that isn't true anymore, Alexei. You have the clotting factor injections now."

"Even so, I can't let you die in my place. I love you too much. I was supposed to be the next Tsar, so what I say should go." He struggled to make his trembling voice sound firm. Gregory looked from one of them to the other.

"You would give your life for him, and he would give his for you. I don't understand."

"It's called _love, _Gregory. And the reason you don't understand is that it has nothing to do with magic or trickery or fooling people."

Gregory looked as if he were considering what Anastasia had just said, then shook his head and grinned.

"Well, as I was saying, it's time to get this show on the road. I gave you the choice and you made it." He leered at Anastasia. "Which I think is rather a pity, as I'll bet you're probably a pretty good little fuck yourself. I'll never know now, will I?"

He opened the car's back door and began to lift Anastasia.

"No..._please..." _Great sobs wracked Alexei's body.

"What are _you _whining about? You get a front row seat to watch your sister take her last swim. Her own choice, remember."

"You never told me about your brother who died, Gregory." Anastasia wondered how long it had been since the phone had rang in George's apartment. She longed to check her wristwatch but knew she didn't dare.

"His name was Dimitri. He fell into the river, and not long after that, he got sick with pneumonia. I begged God to save his life, but He wouldn't listen. I couldn't stop Dimitri from dying because I didn't yet have the power, the power to halt physiological processes that would lead to death if left unchecked. Oh, how I wanted that power. I knew that if I had it I could someday use it to save someone else, someone much more important than a simple peasant boy like my brother."

They both looked at Alexei, who stared at the ground.

"I knew that there was a price to pay, but I was willing to pay it. It would be worth it for the power I would get in exchange. I could have the most powerful family in Russia literally eating out of the palm of my hand. And I did." He laughed crazily.

Anastasia saw the look of deep shame on her brother's face and longed to comfort him, to tell him that he wasn't to blame, that he certainly hadn't _asked _to be born with hemophilia.

"Now, no more small talk. I have work to do." Gregory once more began to lift Anastasia.

"There's something else, Gregory. Remember those jewels that were sewn into my gown back at the Ipatiev House? When I crossed over, I brought them with me."

"You're bluffing. We both know the Bolsheviks took them."

"But what if they didn't, Gregory? What if I'm right? Can you imagine how much those jewels would be worth today? If you kill me or my brother, you'll never know where they are now. Do you really want to take that chance?"

Gregory paused, looking hesitant. Suddenly two more cars pulled up behind his on the bridge. One was George's Toyota and the other was a police cruiser. _Thank God!_

"I'll be right back." Gregory sailed over the bridge's rail in one fluid movement. Anastasia heard the distant splash from far below, but she didn't see the bubbles rising to the top of the water.


	11. Aftermath

George was there right away, quickly untying the rope that bound her hands.

"I'm all right. Please see to Alexei first," she told him through chattering teeth.

"He's fine. Maddy's with him." Anastasia glanced over at her brother and saw that her friend was there, untying the rope from around his wrists.

"My God, how could anyone _do _this to you?" George's voice was soft, incredulous, as he tenderly rubbed the skin of her wrists where the rope had chafed.

"It's my fault." Anastasia struggled to get the words out around the sobs in her throat. "I knew what he was, but I listened to him anyway. I could have gotten Alexei killed. I could...have gotten...my brother...killed..._again."_

"No, no, sweetheart, it wasn't your fault." George's voice was soft, soothing, as he gently touched her chin. "You're a kind, honest person who treats others fairly, so of course it's only natural for you to assume that others you meet will be the same, and you're usually right, but not always."

"How'd you find us?"

"When the phone rang and caller ID showed your number and I called back and got no response, I realized that you must be in trouble. The police were able to trace the location of your cell phone."

"Madison?"

"I knew that you were out with Gregory so I was really worried about you. After a few hours I called George to see if he had heard anything from you. He told me about the weird phone call and said that he was waiting to hear back from the police. I went to his apartment and we came down together."

"Ross-Peyton wasn't Gregory's real last name," Anastasia said softly.

Madison looked bewildered, but only for a moment. "I knew it!" she said triumphantly. "My grandfather told me all about him when I was younger. He said that my great grandfather always hated him for what he was doing to your family, and to Russia."

"None of it would have happened if not for him," Anastasia said bitterly.

"You know what, Stacy?" George was untying the rope from around Anastasia's ankles now. "For a long time, I used to tell myself that if it hadn't been for Jane Seymour and her family, what happened to Anne and myself would never have happened. It took me a long time to figure out that the Seymours weren't the only factor in what happened, or even the main one, necessarily. When something like that happens, there are usually a lot of factors involved, so it's very hard to say that just one person or event is to blame. I'm not trying to defend him, only to make you feel better."

"I never thought of it that way before," Anastasia admitted. "George, I really am sorry for what I said before. I _am _your girl. That is, if you still want me to be."

George was finished with the rope. He gave Anastasia a look that couldn't have been more tender, more loving.

"Of course I do, sweetheart." He sat on the edge of the car's back seat, cradling her in his lap. "I love you, Anastasia."

Suddenly she was tongue-tied. "I...I..."

"It's all right, sweetie." His lips touched hers, softly, sweetly. For the very first time. "I know."

Safe and warm in George's embrace, Anastasia remembered the music box song, envisioned the prancing horses, and felt a deep calm replacing the cold fear that had gripped her so recently. She wasn't sure that she entirely understood what was happening, but she knew one thing. It was magic.

"Looks like your brother's made a new friend."

Anastasia looked at Alexei and Madison, who were chatting together as if they had known one another for years.

"I would ask you out on a date, except I'm not old enough to drive for two more years," Alexei said apologetically.

"That's all right. I can drive."

"But isn't the boy supposed to be older than the girl? My Papa was older than my Mama."

"I don't think it matters if you really like each other."

"I really like you, Madison," Alexei said shyly.

"I really like you too, Alexei."

"And you don't even mind that I have hemophilia?"

"Of course not. You can't help that, and besides, it has nothing to do with who you really are on the inside." Madison's voice assumed a teasing lilt. "As long as you, dear Tsarevitch, don't mind that I'm not a European princess."

Alexei giggled. "I"m not the Tsarevitch anymore. I'm just plain Alexei Romanov now."

"Does that bother you? Not being the Tsarevitch anymore, I mean."

Alexei shrugged. "It's simply what I used to be but aren't anymore. I certainly don't miss lying in bed bleeding and all the pain, but I _do _miss Papa and Mama and Olga and Tatiana and Maria so much it hurts."

"You'll see them again in time," Madison told him.

"How do _you _know?"

"I just know. That's all."

"I want to go back home, George," Anastasia mumbled into the front of his shirt. "Not Anne and Henry's house. Your apartment. I want Alexei to come with us too. I have to be with both of you tonight."

"His foster parents think he just went to dinner with you and a friend. They'll be worried sick."

"We can call them in the morning."

George was secretly relieved at the inclusion of Alexei in the request. He didn't feel sure at all that he would trust himself to do the right thing otherwise. He had to keep reminding himself that she was, after all, still only seventeen, and this was the twenty-first century, not the sixteenth.

"All right." All four of them got in George's car and returned to the apartment. Madison drove back to her home and the other three slept together on George's bed that night, still fully clothed, Anastasia's arm around Alexei and George's arm around both of them.

* * *

><p>A few days later, Anastasia played with Elizabeth and Jonathan and watched Spongebob Squarepants with them while Anne read the newspaper.<p>

"This body that was just recovered from the river," Anne remarked. "Turns out it wasn't a recent drowning at all. Forensic anthropologists estimated that he died almost a hundred years ago. They're doing DNA testing to establish his identity."

_I could tell them exactly who he is, but no one would believe me, _thought Anastasia.


	12. Becoming A Woman

For Anastasia and Alexei, life returned to normal fairly quickly. Being young and resilient, they soon recovered from the trauma of the night on the bridge and it became a distant memory.

George was shaken for days afterwards. Although he tried his best to hide it for Anastasia's sake, he had a very hard time getting over how close he had come to losing her forever. That fact made him realize how truly precious she had become to him.

Gregory Ross-Peyton's absence was noticed, of course, especially by the female members of the student body. However, as time passed, it was generally just assumed that he had moved or changed schools and so he was gradually forgotten about by most, except, of course, by Anastasia, Alexei, and Madison.

Although Madison never told Taylor and Cassidy the secret of Anastasia's true identity, the four girls remained close friends for the rest of the school year. They often went to the roller skating rink together, accompanied by Alexei. Taylor and Cassidy roller skated while Anastasia, Alexei, and Madison played video games. Alexei always begged the two girls to skate with the others, insisting that he would be fine alone, but they always refused.

The morning of Anastasia's eighteenth birthday dawned bright and sunny, with dew on the grass and the sun peeking over the horizon promising another very warm day to come. It was also the day she and her friends graduated high school.

"I'm so proud of you, sweetheart," Anne told her as she helped her to adjust her cap. "You've done so well."

"I'm just so happy to have all that studying behind me!" Anastasia said. Unlike her siblings, she had always disdained academic work, finding real life to be much more interesting.

Arriving at the high school auditorium, Anastasia hurried to find her place in the procession. The only thing that kept this day from being perfect in every way was the fact that her parents and sisters weren't here.

As the graduates entered the auditorium, Anastasia's eyes scanned the audience for George and Alexei. Her relationship with George had subtly but unmistakably changed that night on the bridge. Their friendship had always been warm and loving, but the events of that night seemed to have added an extra dimension to it. It was there in the way he looked at her, the way he spoke to her, the way he touched her. She had always seen him as the older brother she had never had, but over time he had come to mean so much more than that to her, and he gave every indication that he felt the same way about her, although nothing quite prepared her for the conversation she was to have with him that very evening.

He took her out to a nice restaurant to celebrate her birthday and graduation.

"You look absolutely stunning," he told her when he arrived to pick her up.

"Thank you. You look very nice as well," she replied, thinking how handsome he did indeed look in his navy blue suit and tie.

"So how does it feel to finally be an adult?" he asked with a smile as they waited for their food to be served.

"I'm not really sure yet." She reflected that, surprisingly, she didn't really feel all that different than she had the day before.

"You do know that as Alexei's only known living blood relative you can now become his legal guardian."

No, she hadn't known that. It had never even occurred to her to wonder about it.

"It would mean that he would live with you and you would be legally responsible for him. He wouldn't have to go to the psychiatrist anymore, and you'd be responsible for taking him for his clotting factor injection appointments. You'd also have to sign forms for him until he's eighteen, just as Anne has signed forms for you this past year."

"That would be incredible!" To Anastasia it sounded almost too good to be true.

"Tell you what." Their food had finally arrived, and George put his fork down and looked straight at her. "We can marry and both become his legal guardians. That way I can put him on my insurance. I'll have to move into a bigger place, of course. What do you say?"

Anastasia was dumbstruck. He sounded so casual about it that it was impossible for her to be sure he was being serious.

George smiled. "Well, have I finally managed to render you speechless?"

"If that was supposed to be a proposal, it certainly wasn't a very romantic one," she told him curtly.

"Would you prefer for me to go down on one knee?"

"Very much so."

So he did.

* * *

><p>They were married in a small chapel by a minister friend of Henry's. Anastasia knew that her mother would have much preferred it to have been in the Russian Orthodox church, but George wasn't Russian Orthodox, of course.<p>

Only a few family members and close friends were in attendance. Madison stood proudly beside Alexei, who was very smartly dressed and all smiles.

"You're next!" Anastasia kidded her friend.

"You'll wait for me, won't you, Maddy? Like George waited for Nastya?" Alexei asked.

"Of course I will!" Madison assured him.

George took Anastasia on a cruise for their honeymoon, and she wore her dress with the sailor collar. George thought that she looked simply adorable.

"I feel just as if I'm aboard the Imperial Yacht," she told him. "I can see us now. Papa would be at the helm, of course, with Mama sitting beside him. Olga and Tatiana would be flirting with the officers, Maria would be sunbathing, and Alexei and I would be playing pranks on people, trying to trip them and stealing their shoes. I really was a terrible influence on him. Maria would apologize to the people I tripped and scold me and tell me to be nice. She was always so sweet and kind to everyone. You would have loved her, George. And Alexei was simply adorable in his sailor suit!"

George was thankful that she could now talk about her family and sound only a little sad. He never asked her about them but waited until she was ready to volunteer information. The coming night was also much on his mind. He remembered the awkwardness of his honeymoon night with Jane Parker and was determined that things would be better for Anastasia. God, she had already been through so much, and he loved her so.

That night he emerged from their cabin's bathroom clad only in a robe to see her sitting on the bed waiting for him in the negligee he had bought her for the occasion. Once again he was struck by how fresh, sweet, and innocent she looked, so much so that he felt almost guilty for what he was about to do. Yet she smiled seductively and lay back on the bed, letting one leg fall to the side so that her inner thighs were exposed. His breath quickened as desire surged through him. Soon the negligee and George's robe were both lying beside the bed, and George slowly and tenderly began to make love to his new wife. She gasped at the initial slight pain but was very quickly overwhelmed with the most intense emotions she had ever felt in her life. For the very first time she felt as if she and another were truly as one, bonded together in a more intimate way than she had ever imagined could be possible. It was as if there were nobody else but herself and George, and no other time but now.


	13. Dr Botkin, Jimmy, And The Balalaika

George was first to awaken the following morning. For a long time he lay propped on one elbow, just watching Anastasia sleep and thinking about how peaceful she looked. She had certainly experienced far more than her fair share of tragedy in her brief eighteen years, having seen her entire family brutally slaughtered before her very eyes, then having been deceived and almost killed again by a malevolent creature bent on revenge. George was determined that from now on her life would be as full of sunshine and laughter as he could make it.

She stirred and her eyes blinked open.

"Good morning, beautiful. Did you sleep well?"

She yawned and stretched. "I guess I must have. I don't remember. You?"

"Very well, thank you." He smiled and kissed the tip of her nose.

"I wonder if this is how my Mama felt the morning after her wedding night." Anastasia's eyes held a faraway look.

"How do you feel, darling?"

"Right now I feel closer to you than I've ever felt to anyone before in my entire life."

"I'm so glad, Stacy." His heart swelled with love for her. "I feel very close to you as well."

"They were devoted to each other." Her eyes held that faraway look again. "She came from Germany to marry him. She was Protestant like you but when she married my Papa she converted to the Russian Orthodox church. She never did learn Russian very well. They spoke to each other mostly in English. She was quiet and serious. She never cared much for parties and grand balls like my Grandmama did. My Papa was the most powerful man in Russia but he always did what she wanted because he wanted her to be happy. He loved her so much, and she loved him as well. She wanted so badly to give him a son. When I was born he was so disappointed that he had to go for a long walk to calm down before he could go to see her."

"Alexei was born when I was three years old. At first everybody was so happy, but it wasn't long before we realized that something was terribly wrong. He bled a lot more than he should have." She sighed. "That was the beginning of the end."

She looked sad again. He couldn't bear to see her looking sad.

"Why don't you tell me more about the Imperial Yacht," he suggested.

"It was magnificent! It was called the _Standart, _and in the summer we used to go on cruises, mostly to Livadia. We liked to roller skate on the deck sometimes. All except Alexei, of course."

"That sounds like fun." He was glad to see her in better spirits.

* * *

><p>"I wish I had a beard like Papa's." Alexei examined the baby-smooth skin of his face critically.<p>

"You will someday," Anastasia assured him.

"When is my voice going to ever change? I'm tired of sounding like a five-year-old."

"You don't sound like a five-year-old, Alexei." She laughed. "It's Madison, isn't it?"

He grinned shyly.

"Well, she doesn't worry about those things, so you shouldn't either."

"It seems so strange to think of you as being married, Nastya. I've always just assumed that Olga would be first, since she's..._was..._the oldest."

Neither of them said another word, but they were both thinking the same thing.

When they reached the clinic, Anastasia was astonished to see who Alexei's physician was.

"Dr. Botkin!" she exclaimed with delight. _The last time I saw him, he was lying on the floor of the basement of the Ipatiev House, bleeding and lifeless..._

"Anastasia!" He sounded just as happy to see her as she was to see him. "Have you seen any of the others?"

"So far, no," she said quietly. They exchanged a sad glance.

"I was so pleased to learn of the treatments now available for hemophiliacs," Dr. Botkin continued. "Your brother now has the chance to live a nearly normal life. Gone are the days of the uncontrollable internal bleeding."

"Isn't the twenty-first century great?" Anastasia agreed.

"In most ways, absolutely."

* * *

><p>Saturday morning, George, Anastasia, and Alexei were walking to the corner store when a spaniel eagerly ran up to them.<p>

"Jimmy!" Alexei cried joyfully, scooping the dog up into his arms. The spaniel's tail wagged so vigorously that its whole body shook, and it licked Alexei's face enthusiastically.

"Did you have a dog named Jimmy before?" asked George.

"Yes! He was with us in the Ipatiev House that night," Anastasia said.

"It's great to see you again, boy!" Alexei exclaimed as the dog continued to lick his face. "He can live with us, can't he, George? Please?"

George laughed softly. "We have no way of knowing for sure if this is your Jimmy, Alexei. He may very well be someone else's missing pet. We must at least make an attempt to find out whether he already has an owner before we plan to keep him."

"No! He's Jimmy! I _know _he is!" Alexei was crestfallen.

"George is right, Alexei," Anastasia said softly. "If he does already have an owner, then his owner must miss him just as much as we miss Jimmy."

Alexei looked disappointed but didn't say anything.

Anastasia looked at the dog in her brother's arms. She knew in her heart that he really was Jimmy, yet what George had said had sounded perfectly logical, so she couldn't argue with it.

* * *

><p>To Anastasia and Alexei's great joy, no one came forward to claim the dog and they were able to keep him.<p>

One day it was just George and Anastasia, as Alexei was at the movies with Madison. He had sweet talked her into watching a spy movie with him, promising to watch a chick flick with her later on in return. No one could resist Alexei's winning smile, least of all Madison, and he knew that perfectly well.

They had a few minutes to kill so decided to look around in a pawn shop they were about to pass.

"I thought I'd never see another one of these ever again!" Anastasia exclaimed, reaching for an instrument with a perfectly triangular base and four strings.

"What is it?" George asked.

"It's a balalaika," Anastasia said softly.

"Do you know how to play it?"

She nodded, cradling the instrument lovingly. George bought it for her, of course.

"Play something for me," he urged when they got home.

Anastasia played three or four songs, then gently put the balalaika down and went and stood quietly beside the window. She had that faraway look in her eyes again.

"Do you feel sad?" George asked gently.

"A little bit. Well, not exactly sad, but..."

"Nostalgic?" George suggested.

"Yes, that's the word!" She smiled.

George laughed softly. "Do you know what makes _me _feel nostalgic, Stacy?"

"What?"

"Sixteenth century violin and lute music. In my previous life, one of my best friends was a musician who played the violin and also the lute."

She grinned, then looked serious again. "I used to be the funny one, always playing jokes on people or acting like a clown and making them laugh. Papa used to call me _shvibzik, _the imp. Now I'm so serious most of the time. What's wrong with me?"

"Nothing's wrong with you, sweetheart. You simply grew up, that's all."

"I suppose I did, didn't I?"


	14. Unbroken Circle

At George's urging, Anastasia enrolled for the upcoming fall term at the local university.

"I know you never cared much for school work, darling," he told her. "But you're so intelligent that it would be a real shame if you didn't use it."

"There are other ways to use one's intelligence other than going back to school."

"True, but in the twenty-first century, your career options are very limited without a college education."

"Careers. There was once a time when I never had to worry about such a thing."

"I know, hon. The same was true for me."

If high school was crowded, university was even more so. Much more so. Anastasia saw a few familiar faces that she recognized from high school, but the others were all strangers.

After her first three classes it was time for lunch. She asked directions to the cafeteria, also known as the student center. In the student center she saw all three of her sisters sitting together at a table. Unable to believe it at first, she had to look twice, and sure enough, it was them. There was no mistaking it. Compassionate but temperamental Olga. Regal, dominant Tatiana. Sweet, gentle Maria with her big, round blue eyes. They were all there, looking much the same as the last time Anastasia had seen them.

Her heart pounding with excitement, Anastasia sneaked up behind them and disguised her voice.

"Excuse me, but I'm new here. Could one of you ladies please tell me how to get to the library?"

"Nastya!" Tatiana exclaimed. Before Anastasia could react Maria's arms were around her, hugging her tightly.

"Dearest Mashka," Anastasia whispered softly into her sister's hair. _Do miracles ever end, or do they just go on and on?_

"Where's Baby?" asked Tatiana.

"You know he hates to be called that. He's in high school, in the tenth grade."

"Where do you live?" asked Olga.

"We both live with my husband, George, about a five-minute drive from here."

"Your..._husband?" _Tatiana's mouth dropped open.

"Yes, we were married last June," Anastasia said proudly.

"Oh, Nastya, I'm so happy for you!" Maria hugged her again.

Olga frowned. "But you're the youngest girl, Nastya. It isn't right that you should have gotten married first. That should have been me."

Was she kidding? With Olga one could never be sure. Anastasia saw how her sister's eyes twinkled. Yes, she was just kidding.

"Tell us about him!" cried Tatiana.

So Anastasia told them the whole story, beginning with meeting George on the bridge and continuing on through meeting Anne, starting school, meeting Madison, finding Alexei, graduating high school, marrying George. The only part she left out was the encounter with Gregory Ross-Peyton and her discovery of his true identity. She saw no point in re-opening old wounds.

"That's so romantic!" Maria sighed when she had finished talking.

"Tell me what's happened to you since the last time I saw you," Anastasia said.

"We arrived together, frightened and confused," Tatiana told her. "We didn't know what to do at first. I finally thought of going to the Russian Orthodox church for help. I told the priest who we were and what had happened. He didn't believe me, of course, but he was very kind to us. I told him that Olga and I both had nursing experience and he found us both jobs as nursing assistants at the hospital. You have to have a degree to be a regular nurse now, he said. He got Maria a job as a file clerk in the X-ray department of the same hospital. He also helped us find an apartment near the university. It's a little small but we love it. He's been ever so good to us. I don't know how we could ever repay him."

"What time does Alexei get home from school?" asked Olga.

"Three thirty."

"We'll come over and meet him this evening," Tatiana said. As usual, she spoke for all the sisters. She got directions to George and Anastasia's house and they all went back to class.

Madison also happened to be visiting that evening. She had decided to take a year off from school to work for her uncle and aunt's business and start school the following year. Her cousins Chase and Chance came over with her. Chase was twenty-four and Chance was twenty-one.

"This is Madison, Dimitri's great granddaughter," Anastasia told her sisters when they arrived.

"Dimitri?" asked Olga.

"The boy who worked in the kitchen at the palace in St. Petersberg. Don't you remember him?"

"Oh, yes! Dimitri!" Olga laughed.

"How do you do," Madison said, shaking hands with all three girls. "I've heard ever so much about all of you. Chase and Chance are Dimitri's great grandsons."

Alexei arrived home from school and was, of course, thrilled to see his oldest three sisters again. Olga, Tatiana, and Maria couldn't stop hugging and kissing him.

"All right, that's about enough, now," he laughed after awhile. As much as he loved his sisters, he was very self conscious for Madison and her cousins to see all the affection they were showering him with.

Jimmy, hearing all the commotion, bounded joyfully into the room, and the girls all hugged and kissed him as well.

"You'll never guess who Alexei's physician is now," Anastasia told them.

"Who?" asked Tatiana.

"Dr. Botkin!"

"I don't believe it! He's here as well?"

"Yes, and not only that, but there are new treatments for hemophilia now that weren't available back in nineteen eighteen. Alexei gets clotting factor injections now so his bleeding tendencies are under much better control. He still has to be careful but he isn't sick nearly as often as he used to be."

"That's wonderful!" exclaimed Maria.

"If only Papa, Mama, and Dimitri were all here, things would be just about perfect," sighed Tatiana. Dimitri Malama was an army officer with whom she had been in love.

Everyone was still there when George came home a couple of hours later.

"Well, I'm certainly glad you all waited for me before starting the party," he quipped.

"This is my sisters, Olga, Tatiana, and Maria," Anastasia told him. "And this is my husband, George."

"My new brother!" exclaimed Maria, giving George a hug.

"What a sweetheart you are." George kissed her cheek and then shook hands with Olga and Tatiana.

Everyone stayed and visited until almost midnight. There seemed to be ever so much to catch up on. Although exhausted, Anastasia was very reluctant to see her sisters leave.

"I almost feel that if I say good-bye to you I'll never see you again," she told them.

"But of course you will!" Maria gave her a reassuring hug. "We'll all see you at university tomorrow."

"Of course. Silly me," Anastasia laughed.

"Come to bed, darling," George gently urged her. "You need your rest."

Anastasia settled into his arms and was asleep within seconds.


	15. Stupid Bolsheviks

The next day in school Anastasia counted down the hours until it was time to meet up with her sisters again in the cafeteria/student center. When lunchtime finally came she rushed over there as quickly as she could and there they were again, waving wildly to her.

"Well, hello there, married lady," said Olga, pulling out a chair for her.

"It's almost like old times again, isn't it?" Anastasia replied.

"Not exactly," said Tatiana, glancing around the crowded, noisy student center.

"Your husband seems so sweet," said Maria. "And Chance is kind of cute, don't you think?"

"I'll be sure and tell him that you want twenty children when you get married," Anastasia teased.

"You wouldn't dare!"

"Of course I wouldn't," Anastasia said, crossing her fingers behind her back.

"I'm not even interested in meeting anyone," Tatiana said. "I still miss Dimitri too much."

Maria gave her a sympathetic hug.

That evening after school Anastasia and Alexei went to their sisters' apartment. Madison, Chase, and Chance went as well. Madison brought her photo album that contained pictures of her great grandfather, Dimitri, as well as other family members. The photos brought back memories for everyone.

"Remember the time Nastya sneaked Dimitri onto the _Standart _by pretending that he was Alexei?" asked Olga, laughing at one photo.

"That sailor suit was much too small for him. Look how his legs stick out at the bottom," added Tatiana.

A few pages later were photos of Dimitri as a young adult, then photos of Dimitri with his wife, Madison's great grandmother. He looked very handsome in his wedding photo. He wore a dark suit, and his brown hair was neatly groomed. His bride was stunningly beautiful in a white lace gown. Anastasia had to swallow hard as she felt tears come to her eyes. _If only..._She thought of George and felt guilty.

"Are you all right, Nastya?" asked Maria. Anastasia nodded. She didn't trust herself to speak.

"He is rather handsome in that photo, isn't he," Olga commented.

"Not as handsome as my Dimitri was," Tatiana said loyally.

There were many more photos, photos of Dimitri and his wife as a young married couple with their children. Madison's grandfather and his brothers and sisters. _I missed so much, _Anastasia thought. Once again she was overwhelmed by how much time had passed between the night in the Ipatiev House and the time George had found her on the bridge.

Further on were pictures of Dimitri in middle age, then old age. To Anastasia he still looked remarkably the same no matter how old he was. In some of the photos his wife was with him. Anastasia felt a deep melancholy settle over her. _That could have been me growing old together with Dimitri. Stupid Bolsheviks... _For some reason she thought of George's first wife, Jane Parker, and wondered what had become of her after she had betrayed George and helped bring about his death. She had never asked, as she hadn't wanted to bring back sad memories for George.

Anastasia was so lost in reverie that at first she didn't even notice that Olga, Maria, Chase, and Chance were no longer in the same room. Chase had told Olga that he wanted to show her a new CD that he had bought. Really he had just wanted an excuse to get her alone. He thought that she was lovely with her light brown curls and clear blue eyes. Also he had to admit that he was very curious about her.

"So, tell me about yourself," he said.

"Well..." Olga began, preparing to launch into the story she and her sisters had concocted for occasions such as this one.

"It's all right," Chase said softly, as if reading her mind. "I know who you really are. Madison told me everything."

Olga was relieved. "I'm taking classes in nursing at the university. I hope to become an R.N. soon. Tanya and I worked as nurses during the Great War so we have experience, but now you need the degree as well."

"World War One," Chase said with a chuckle.

"Oh, that's right. Of course." Olga felt awkward. She really hated it when things like this happened.

"It's all right." Chase grinned indulgently. "Nowadays lots of women go to medical school and become doctors themselves, you know. That's something you might want to think about, unless you really have your heart set on becoming a nurse."

"So I've heard. It just seems so strange to me for a doctor to be a woman."

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Chance and Maria were deeply engrossed in conversation themselves.<p>

"You seem so nice all the time. Doesn't anything ever make you mad?" asked Chance.

Maria nodded. "The Bolsheviks. I had a wonderful life and they took it all away from me."

"But you're alive now, and the Bolsheviks are gone. Well, maybe not really gone, but they're not in power any more. Thanks to President Ronald Reagan, my dad says. He was President when my dad was in college. My dad remembers when Communism fell."

"Please, let's just talk about something else."

"Good idea," Chance said amiably. "What kinds of things do you like to do?"

"I like to roller skate, and to draw, and I also like to read."

"What do you like to read?"

"Romance, mostly. What kinds of things do you like to do?"

"All kinds of sports. Work on cars. Watch movies and listen to music."

"What kind of music?"

"All different kinds. Mostly hard rock."

Maria looked puzzled for a minute, then grinned and picked up a pebble and tapped it against the side of the building.

Chance laughed. "That's a good one."

Just then several children ran past, followed by their mother yelling at them to slow down.

"Do you like kids?" asked Chance.

"Sure. They're all right."

"I love kids." Chance grinned. "Can you believe that at one time I wanted to have twenty of them?"


	16. The Alexander Palace

The rest of the year passed happily for Anastasia and her siblings. On December twenty-fifth she celebrated Christmas with George and Anne and Anne's family, and on January seventh she celebrated a traditional Russian Orthodox Christmas with her sisters and Alexei. They all tried to do everything exactly as their parents would have done if they had been there.

"It's not fair," five-year-old Elizabeth complained. "I get only one Christmas, and you get two!"

"I think you got enough toys to last you for at least a year." Anastasia laughed and rumpled the little girl's hair playfully.

In June of the following year, Olga married Chase and Maria married Chance in the same Russian Orthodox church that Dimitri's grave was behind. Tatiana still insisted that she wasn't ready to meet anyone new yet, and the others all respected her wishes and didn't introduce her to anyone.

Later in the summer Tatiana mentioned that she would like to visit St. Petersburg to see how it had changed since nineteen eighteen. Her siblings all had the same desire, so all nine of them - George and Anastasia, Chase and Olga, Chance and Maria, Alexei and Madison, and Tatiana - boarded an airplane to Russia.

As the airplane landed at Pulkovo International Airport, Anastasia couldn't help but feel like a time traveler. She knew that the St. Petersburg she would be visiting would be a radically different one from the one she had last seen. She hoped that at least some landmarks that had been dear to her heart would remain.

From the motel it was a short trip by taxi to leave the luggage, then on to the place they all wanted most to see again: the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoe Selo.

Anastasia's mind was so filled with memories of her childhood home that she barely noticed the scenery outside her window during the thirty-minute train ride. She noticed that her sisters and Alexei were unusually quiet as well and knew that they all felt the same way. The only ones who spoke at all were George, Chase, Chance, and Madison, and none of the others even heard a word they said.

"There it is!" Tatiana shouted at last. And sure enough, there it was. The Alexander Palace. Home.

The five of them - Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and Alexei - walked toward the palace's entrance hand in hand. It was a very emotional moment for all of them. Painfully aware of the absence of their parents, they nevertheless felt as if they were finally returning to the place they belonged. George, Chase, Chance, and Madison all felt very much like outsiders.

Inside the palace, Anastasia realized that it no longer felt like home. The entire interior seemed to have been transformed into a type of shrine to her family. She walked into her father's study to find that it had obviously been recreated to look as authentic as possible. A portrait of her grandfather hung on the wall. _Oh Papa..._ George touched her hand gently. It was time to move on.

She walked into the Maple Room, gazing up at the high ceiling, remembering what it had been like to feel so tiny by comparison as a child. Then she visited the Mauve Room, where she was almost surprised not to see her mother sitting and reading or doing embroidery. _Oh Mama..._

Upstairs was the Crimson Room, the classrooms, and the dining room.

"Look, Maria, our bedroom!" Anastasia grabbed her sister's hand and happily led her to the bedroom they had shared as children. Once inside it, she looked around in dismay. "It's not the same," she whispered. Everything was too...immaculate. Nobody lived here anymore. It was just an exhibition for curious strangers to gawk at and weep over and say what a tragedy it had been.

_I'm a ghost, that's all I am...just a ghost..._

Anastasia suddenly felt as if she were suffocating. She had to get out of the palace as quickly as she could. She raced down the hallway and down the stairs, George struggling to keep up with her. She was almost out the door when he finally touched her arm.

"Stacy!"

She turned her tear-streaked face to him. "I used to belong here...but I don't anymore...it's not the same..." She saw the compassion in his eyes and just couldn't take it. She broke free from his grasp and suddenly collided with a man who was walking in the opposite direction.

"Watch where you're going, _shvibzik." _Anastasia looked right up into the laughing eyes of her father.


	17. Tatiana, Dimitri, And Ortino

"Papa!" Instantly his arms were around her, holding her tightly to his chest. Alexandra, walking beside her husband, also embraced her youngest daughter in a three-way hug. Anastasia sensed her mother's presence but simply couldn't tear herself away from her father's embrace at the moment. Behind her she heard the excited shouts of her siblings.

What a joyous reunion it was! After all the many hugs and kisses, Tatiana introduced the newest family members to her parents. "This is Olga's husband Chase, Maria's husband Chance, Anastasia's husband George, and Alexei's girlfriend Madison. George and Anastasia are taking care of Alexei until he finishes high school. His hemophilia is well under control now. He gets clotting factor injections."

"That makes me happier than anything I've ever heard," said Alexandra.

"I'm so happy to see that you've all found loving partners," added Nicholas. "Except for you, Tanya. I suppose the right man just hasn't come along yet?"

Tatiana sighed. "I guess...I guess it's just too soon after Dimitri," she said softly.

"You still miss him, don't you, sweetheart," Alexandra said sympathetically.

Tatiana nodded.

"So do you live here again?" Olga asked her parents.

"We live in Moscow," Nicholas told her. "It's the capital of the country now. We both work for the government, helping to make sure that the needs of the common people are provided for and that the wrongs of the past are made right. Above all, we want to make sure that what happened before never happens again."

"As you know, we learned the hard way what the consequences are of living in our own world, far removed from the cares and concerns of the general populace," Alexandra added. "Too late, we realized what a mistake that was, and we're very grateful to have been given a second chance."

"Yes, we are," Nicholas agreed, embracing his wife. "Where are you all staying?"

Tatiana told him the name of the motel, and soon they were all on the way back there. Nicholas and Alexandra visited at the motel until the wee hours of the night. There was just so much to catch up on. George sat up as long as he could, until his drowsiness began to get the better of him and he politely excused himself and went to bed. Anastasia finally followed him at about four in the morning. As she slid between the sheets she felt George's arm embrace her and hold her against his chest in their usual sleeping position.

"Night, George," she said with a big yawn.

"Night, love," he whispered, kissing her hair.

* * *

><p>The family had been in St. Petersburg for several days when Tatiana found herself wondering aimlessly beside the River Kuzminka in Alexander Park and feeling slightly melancholy for no particular reason that she could ascertain. It occurred to her that it must be painfully obvious to her parents that she was the only one of their five children currently without a romantic partner, but that fact didn't normally particularly bother her. Perhaps she was simply worried that her mother was disappointed or concerned that she might be unhappy. She had always been particularly close to her mother.<p>

"Is that really you, Tanya?" A joyous shout interrupted her reverie, and she turned to see none other than Dimitri Malama, with the little bulldog Ortino on a leash beside him. With an excited cry she rushed to embrace Dimitri and hold Ortino, who licked her face enthusiastically.

"When did you get here?" asked Dimitri.

"Do you mean St. Petersburg? Only a few days ago. How long have you been here?"

"Ever since I returned after my death. I was killed in August of nineteen nineteen, fighting to defend the country I love from those who had..." An expression of agony came over his face and he couldn't finish. Tatiana put a comforting hand on his arm.

"It's all right, Dimitri. We're all alive, well, and happy now."

"But we lost," Dimitri said bitterly. "We fought as hard as we could and we still lost."

"But the Communists are gone now. They're gone, and we have our beloved country back."

"I cried when I found out, you know," Dimitri said softly. "For a long time the Reds lied to us. They said that only your father was dead, that the rest of you were in hiding. I can't begin to tell you how I felt when I found out what had really happened." He looked as if he might cry. Tatiana hugged him and tried to comfort him.

"Please stay with me, Tanya. I couldn't bear to lose you again."

"But my family..."

"Please, Tanya." The look in his eyes tore at her heart. "Now that I've finally found you again, I just can't let you go. I want to marry you, Tanya."

"I want the same thing, Dimitri. I could never care for anyone else but you."

"Will you stay, then?" His eyes and voice were full of hope.

"I'll stay, Dimitri." There had never really been any doubt in her mind what her answer would be.

* * *

><p>Although he dreaded it, Alexei knew that he had to talk with his parents. They had every right to make him stay, of course. Every right in the world. And yet...<p>

Where he lived now had been home to him for two years. It was where he felt he belonged. Where school and all his friends were. Where his sisters and their husbands were. Perhaps most importantly of all, where Madison was.

"Papa...Mama..."

"What is it, Alexei?"

"I was wondering if you would mind...I mean, would it be all right if I went back home with the others instead of staying here in Russia with you?"

They both looked taken aback. Alexei felt discouraged, thinking that perhaps he shouldn't have even brought the subject up in the first place. Above all, the last thing he wanted was for them to feel hurt or rejected.

"Why...certainly, son, if that's what you wish," Nicholas told him.

"I didn't want you to think that I don't still love you or anything..."

"Of course not, Alexei. We would never think that, no matter what," his mother assured him.

"So it's all right, then?" He was overwhelmed with relief.

"Of course it is." Nicholas smiled. "You're almost an adult, and we trust you to make your own decisions. We know how important the life you've become accustomed to is to you, and we would never ask you to give that up."

"Oh, thank you!" Alexei laughed happily as he hugged them both tightly.

* * *

><p>"It feels so strange to be leaving Tatiana behind," Anastasia told George when they were in the airplane on the way back home.<p>

"We're all going to miss her," George agreed. "She's an adult now and has to follow her heart, as do we all."

"You had another sister besides Anne, didn't you?"

"Yes. Mary." George's eyes held a faraway look.

"Do you miss her terribly sometimes?"

"I do, Stacy." George briefly dabbed his eyes as if he were crying. Anastasia frowned with concern. "She followed her own path, as did Anne and myself. Yet for her, the outcome was very different."

They were both mostly silent for the rest of the journey home.


	18. A New Chapter

_Anastasia _ _could hear the baby crying. She knew that he was her son. She picked him up and saw that blood was running from his nose in a thin trickle. The trickle soon became a flood as blood gushed from the baby's nose, then from his eyes, his ears, his mouth, everywhere. Blood dripped from his body and fell to the ground._

_"Help me! Somebody please help me!" Anastasia cried as she desperately ran to and fro, holding her bleeding son in her arms.  
><em>

_"I can help," said a deep, rich voice. Anastasia turned and Gregory Ross-Peyton was there, smiling and holding out his arms.  
><em>

_**"No! No! Nooo..."**  
><em>

"Wake up, Stacy!" Anastasia opened her eyes to find George gently shaking her. She was gasping for breath, and her heart was pounding.

"Oh, George! I saw him again...he was there..."

"Sh, sh. It was just a dream, Stacy. That's all it was. Just a dream." He held her tightly and rocked her. In his arms she felt her body begin to relax.

"It seemed so real..." she whimpered.

"I know, darling. I know." His voice was soothing, drowsy. He caressed her tenderly as she clung to him.

"Are you going to be all right now?" he asked after a few minutes.

"Yeah." She smiled weakly. He glanced at the alarm clock and saw that it was almost time to get up anyway.

"My Uncle Frederick died of hemophilia when he was just three years old," Anastasia said. "Mama was only a year old when it happened so she wasn't even old enough to remember him."

"Stacy, you're not..."

"Oh, no. I couldn't be. No way." She tried to get up but fell dizzily back onto the bed. George looked at her with alarm in his eyes.

"I just tried to get up too fast. That's all," she said, perhaps a little too quickly.

* * *

><p>The smell coming from the biology lab already seemed overpowering before Anastasia had even reached the door. <em>That's odd, <em>she thought. She was so accustomed to the smell that normally she hardly noticed it.

The smell seemed much worse as she entered the room and headed for her work station. Before she could get there she was suddenly too weak to stand and had to grab a nearby table for support.

"Anastasia, you're _green." _Another student looked at her with concern.

"Are you all right, Anastasia?" Suddenly the instructor was there, also looking very concerned.

"I'll be fine. I...I just didn't eat breakfast this morning. That's all." It was true. She hadn't been able to swallow a bite.

"I think you need to visit the clinic," the instructor decided.

"No, really..."

"Do you need help getting there?" asked the instructor, glancing at the student who had spoken.

"No ma'am," Anastasia mumbled.

As Anastasia approached the clinic's entrance, the nurse on duty looked up with interest.

"I kind of fainted in biology lab," Anastasia explained.

The nurse took down all of Anastasia's vitals, then pricked her finger and carefully studied the result. "You're slightly anemic," she told Anastasia.

"But I've never been anemic before in my life!"

"Well, you are now. I'm putting you on iron supplements, and you need to start taking them right away." The nurse scribbled something down in a chart. "What was the date of the beginning of your last menstrual period?"

Anastasia was dumbfounded. "My last one? Why, I suppose it was at least a couple of months ago...I guess I must have skipped last month...that's funny, I've never skipped a month before..."

The nurse was nodding knowingly and handing Anastasia a disposable plastic cup with a screw-on lid. "Urine sample."

* * *

><p>The first thing to do was to tell George, of course. She knew that he would be in the library, and she hurried in that direction. She couldn't imagine what his reaction might be, but she hoped that he wouldn't be angry.<p>

She found him where she knew he would be, sitting at his computer, obviously deeply in thought. He turned and saw her standing there. His face lit up and he smiled, reaching to embrace her.

"Stacy! What a lovely surprise!" He saw the look on her face and his smile disappeared. "Is everything all right, sweetheart?"

"I'm pregnant, George."

"Well!" He looked surprised, then laughed softly. "Wow, Stacy, a baby! I know we weren't planning on it happening quite so soon, but..." "He touched her cheek gently. "Are you unhappy about it, Stacy?"

"Remember that dream that woke me up this morning? I only told you part of it. I didn't tell you the whole thing." She told him every single detail of the dream that she could remember. When she was finished, George gave a low whistle, then held out his arms to her. She stepped into them, and he hugged her gently.

"Listen, honey, I realize how scary this must be for you. Please try to remember that it isn't nineteen eighteen anymore, sweetheart. There are all kinds of medical advances now that weren't available then. Look at Alexei. I'd say he has a fairly normal and happy life now."

"You don't have any idea how he suffered when he was little."

"I know, Stacy, but it's going to be all right. Chances are excellent that our child will be perfectly normal, and even if there _is _a problem, we have modern-day medicine to deal with it, thank goodness. Everything's going to be fine."

Anastasia managed a small smile. George pinched her cheek playfully. "Come on, you can do better than that."

Anastasia grinned.

"That's more like it." George grinned back and then kissed her.

* * *

><p>Anastasia lay on the hard table in the doctor's office, watching with trepidation as the long needle was inserted into her abdomen. On the ultrasound she could see her baby floating peacefully, occasionally moving a tiny arm or leg. She watched as the needle entered the amniotic sac and held her breath, willing it not to touch the tiny body. She breathed a huge sigh of relief as she watched the needle being withdrawn. George was with her, holding her hand, the entire time.<p>

When the procedure was finally over, the technician put a bandage on Anastasia's abdomen and told her to go home and rest for the remainder of the day, to go to the hospital right away if she experienced any type of abdominal cramps. Hearing those words frightened her.

George drove her home and she lay on the sofa watching TV for the rest of the afternoon, her head resting in George's lap while he gently rubbed her back. She dozed off and on.

The phone call came a few days later. Her heart was as light as a feather as she immediately called George to give him the news.

"Guess what?" she cried happily. "Our baby doesn't have hemophilia! It wouldn't have anyway. It's a girl!"

* * *

><p>George sat beside Anastasia's hospital bed, holding his as-yet-unnamed daughter. Anastasia was fast asleep, exhausted after seventeen hours of grueling labor. George had been with her the entire time, encouraging her, supporting her, helping her in every way possible. Watching his daughter come into the world had been the most incredible experience he had ever known, and he wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.<p>

The obligatory phone calls had been made to friends and relatives. George had told everyone that Anastasia was very tired and needed a chance to rest before she would feel up to seeing visitors.

Watching Anastasia's chest gently rise and fall brought memories back to George, recollections of that long-ago night when he had first watched her sleep, having only just rescued her from the bridge. He thought of how much she had grown and matured since then, how the plucky and winsome teenager she had been had blossomed into a strong, confident woman. How very much he had come to love her.

Anastasia stirred and opened her eyes. They fell on George, and she smiled weakly.

"Hello there," George said, grinning broadly.

Anastasia's smile widened.

"Would you like to hold her?" George asked.

Anastasia nodded, and George handed the tiny bundle to her.

"She's just so beautiful." Anastasia looked from the sleeping infant back to her husband. "She looks just like you, George."

George chuckled. "What can I say?"

"I'd like to name her Alexa Nicole, if that's all right with you."

"Sure, honey. That's fine." George was slightly disappointed, as he would have preferred for the baby's middle name to be Anne. Still, he could understand that of course Anastasia would want to honor both her parents.

"I can't wait for Alexei to meet her. He was so happy when I told him that the amniocentesis came back just fine."

"Weren't we all!"

"Alexei even more so than anyone else," Anastasia said pensively.

"He's a wonderful young man. You're very fortunate to have his as a brother."

"I know I am."

_A/N: At the time of her daughter's birth Anastasia was twenty years old and George was in his early thirties. They had been married for two years._


	19. Alexei And Madison

A brisk October wind scattered leaves of red, gold, and brown across the university campus, and she could hear them crunch under their feet as they walked along. He had turned nineteen just a couple of months ago; he was tall and slender like his father, with his medium brown hair neatly combed over his serious blue eyes. She wore her long blonde hair in a ponytail.

"Olga's birthday is only a few weeks away," he told her. "She was the only autumn baby; all the rest of us were born in the spring and summer. Can you believe my oldest sister is almost twenty-eight years old?" He chuckled lightly; she smiled in return.

"Hey, I never showed you the latest photo Tanya sent, did I?" He took his wallet out of his pocket and showed it to her.

"Aw, he's so cute! How old is he now?"

"Eighteen months. He favors his Uncle Alexei just a little bit, don't you think?"

She frowned. "Perhaps a little, around the eyes. I think that's just so cool that they named him Nicholas after your father."

"They call him Nicky, just as everyone has always called Papa."

As he was returning the wallet to his pocket, she tickled him and ran away. His long legs caught up with her right away, of course. Laughing, he pinned her against the nearest tree and kissed her lips.

Now was as good a time to tell him as any, she decided.

"I'm pregnant, Alexei."

His jaw dropped, and his arms fell limply to his sides. An expression of wonder crossed his face, followed by a wide grin.

"Are you sure?"

"If I weren't, would I be telling you?"

His smile evaporated.

"I don't know how this could have happened. We've always been so careful," she continued.

"I know how it happened," he muttered. She looked at him quizzically.

"One broke on me, once."

"And you never even told me?" Anger flashed in her eyes as her voice rose in volume.

"I knew it would have made you freak out."

"What the hell does it look like I'm doing right now?" Her hands were on her hips; he shuffled his feet and stared at the ground. "What did you do, use one that had already expired?"

"Maddy, you _know _I always check the expiration date," he said mildly. "It wasn't a cheap drug store brand, either. It was from the freaking _health _department, for crying out loud."

She crossed her arms and stared at the ground. "Well, what are we going to do now?" she asked softly.

"Why, we'll get married, of course. We were planning to anyway."

"Yes, in three years, when we've both graduated university."

"So I'll get a full-time job and switch to part time status. It'll just take a little longer for me to graduate, that's all."

"Oh, Alexei, I couldn't ask you to do that..."

"You're the one who has to go through the pregnancy, labor, and delivery. It's only fair that I should make sacrifices as well. Besides, you've only got one more term to go, and it would be a real shame for you not to graduate on time."

"Oh, Alexei..." She hugged him, burying her face in his neck.

He suddenly grinned. "Hey, did I ever tell you that after I was born, a 300-round salute was fired? They only fired a 101-round salute for each of the girls."

"No, you didn't. Why was that?"

His grin widened as he pretended to lower his pants.

"Oh, stop it already. You remind me so much of your sister sometimes."

"Which one?"

"You know darn well which one."

* * *

><p>"My next doctor's appointment is on the fifteenth at ten o'clock. I'll get my first ultrasound then. Just think, Alexei, the first time I'll see our baby! Can you come too?"<p>

He checked the calendar and frowned. "I have an appointment for a clotting factor injection on that same day, at ten fifteen. Never mind, I'll just reschedule it. I wouldn't miss the ultrasound for the world."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"It'll be fine. I'm sure they'll be able to get me in a day or two later."

She was secretly overjoyed.

At the appointment, Alexei was just as awed by the tiny form on the ultrasound as Madison was.

"So that's the head, and that's the body...wow, the head's just about as big as the body..."

"It is at this stage," the ultrasound technician told him with a smile. "Over the next few weeks, the arms and legs will become visible, and your little one will look a bit less like a peanut."

"How soon before you can tell whether it's a boy or a girl?" he wanted to know.

"The genitals are usually discernible by between sixteen and nineteen weeks."

"Do you especially want a boy?" Madison asked him.

"Well, there's obviously no throne to inherit anymore," Alexei said glumly. "I suppose it would do just as well to have a daughter. Perhaps even better, since I obviously know more about little girls than little boys. Big girls, rather."

"They were little before they were big," Madison reminded him.

"Yes, but I wasn't born yet then," he laughed.

It was no more than ten minutes after they had left the doctor's office that it happened.

"Alexei, look out!" Madison screamed, but it was too late. A van had run a red light, and suddenly Alexei was slumped over the steering wheel, barely conscious, his eyes glazed with pain.

"Get me to a hospital..."


	20. Deja Vu

A policeman saw Alexei's medic alert bracelet right away and called life flight, and a helicopter arrived to rush him to the hospital. When Madison said that she was pregnant with his child, she was allowed to accompany him. During the brief flight, her eyes never left Alexei's. As the light in them seemed to grow dimmer and dimmer, she struggled to fight a rising panic. When they reached the emergency room, Alexei was transferred to a gurney and quickly wheeled through a set of double doors, leaving Madison to wait alone, helplessly. _What am I supposed to do when something like this happens? Anastasia would know. She's been through it loads of times, but her parents were always there with her, of course..._

With shaking fingers, she called Anastasia. _She's going to really hate me when she finds out that Alexei missed a clotting factor injection appointment to go to my ultrasound appointment with me..._

Anastasia answered, and Madison breathlessly told her what had happened.

"We'll be right there," Anastasia said. "Did you call Olga and Maria?"

"I was just about to."

Within minutes, Anastasia arrived with George.

"Where's Lexi?" asked Madison.

"Anne's watching her," Anastasia told her. The two-and-a-half-year-old girl had her father's dark hair and eyes and her mother's undauntable spirit. She and Anne's son Jonathan enjoyed playing together.

Olga and Maria had just arrived when a physician came to give them an update. "He's out of immediate danger," he said. "The bleeding is, of course, significantly worse than would ordinarily be expected, but we're giving him clotting factors by IV and he's beginning to respond. He has three broken ribs and extensive bruising. A hundred years ago, this type of of injury would have invariably been fatal for him, but with modern day treatment, he has a chance."

"He can't die!" Madison sobbed. "He's going to be a father!"

Anastasia gasped.

"I'm so sorry you had to find out like this," Madison told her.

Instantly all three women surrounded Madison, fussing over her as if she were the one who had been injured.

"You don't need to be under this kind of stress!" Anastasia cried. She and Maria got Madison to lie down and asked a nurse to bring her a drink of water. Maria sat beside her stroking her forehead.

"Really, I'm fine!" Madison insisted, trying in vain to sit up.

"When did you find out?" Anastasia wanted to know.

"Only a few days ago. We were on our way back from my first ultrasound appointment when it happened."

Olga's eyes narrowed. "Didn't Alexei have a clotting factor injection recently?"

"He rescheduled it so that he could go to my ultrasound appointment with me," Madison confessed. "He really wanted to be with me when I saw the baby for the first time. And I wanted him there. I wanted us to see our baby for the first time together." She turned pleading eyes toward Anastasia. "I was so afraid you'd hate me when you found out."

"Oh, Maddy, I could _never _hate you." Anastasia embraced her tightly.

A man dressed in clergical garments and carrying a Bible suddenly appeared. He was tall and slender, with long, dark brown hair. Anastasia couldn't see his eyes because he was wearing dark shades. She felt a growing sense of trepidation.

"May I pray with you?" The man's voice was deep and rich. It sounded eerily familiar.

"What unique glasses! Can I please look at them for a second?" asked Anastasia.

"Yes, of course." Puzzled, the man handed his shades to Anastasia, and she was able to take a quick glimpse at his eyes and saw that they were dark brown. _Thank God._

"Thank you very much, sir. Yes, of course you may pray with us," she told him.

A few hours later, the physician reappeared. "Good news," he told them. "The bleeding has finally stopped completely. We'll keep him a few days for observation, and of course he's going to be sore for quite a while, but other than that, he should be fine."

"Thank God!" All four women and George hugged each other.

"When can I see him?" asked Madison.

"Whenever you want." The physician smiled. "He's awake, although he may be a bit groggy from the Demerol."

Alexei was lying with half-open eyes and a lop-sided smile.

"I was only trying to scare you," he quipped.

"Oh, you did that, all right." She went to him and hugged him as if she would never let go. "Don't you _ever _do that to me again!"

"I'll try not to." He chuckled weakly.

"I'm going to marry you just as soon as you get out of here," Madison said emphatically. "I'm not putting it off for one day longer!"


	21. Grand Duchess Braelyn

**Three Years Later**

"Hi, hon." Alexei quickly hugged and kissed Madison, then glanced around. "Seems awfully quiet today. How's the little one?"

"It's her tonsils again." Madison sighed heavily. "This time the doctor said they're going to have to come out. We have an appointment for a pre-op at the hospital on Tuesday." She put her arms around him and rested her head on his shoulder. He was just about exactly a head taller than her now. When they had first met he had been perhaps a half inch or so shorter than her.

"Oh, hon, it'll be all right." He embraced her and rubbed her back. Braelyn awakened and began to cry, a thin, weak wail. Alexei went to her right away, lifted her from her crib and held her close. "Daddy!" she cried.

"I'm so sorry my princess isn't feeling well," Alexei murmured, kissing the top of her head. His other arm went around Madison, and he hugged them both tightly to himself.

* * *

><p>"Everything seems to be in order," the nurse said crisply, closing the file. "You are to report to the hospital at eight o'clock in the morning. No food or drink after midnight the previous night. Any more questions?"<p>

Madison put her hand over Alexei's. "Honey, I'm scared. She's just so..._little."_

The nurse smiled indulgently. "It's a bit frightening, I know, but everything will be just fine."

Braelyn sat in her stroller, holding a rag doll and staring with round blue eyes. Alexei smiled at her. "Time to go bye-bye now, sweetheart." Braelyn solemnly waved to the nurse as they prepared to return home.

On the morning the operation was scheduled they returned to the same parking garage and made their way to the hospital entrance. "Registration for surgery downstairs," Madison said to herself.

"Right," Alexei said dully. Braelyn, unaccustomed to being awake this early in the morning, slept soundly in her stroller, oblivious to what she was soon to undergo.

They signed in and sat down to wait. They picked up magazines, riffled through them, put them back. Presently a gurney arrived for Braelyn.

"Mommy," the little girl mumbled sleepily as Madison gently lifted her from the stroller and helped to get her settled onto the gurney. Braelyn's eyes briefly flickered open.

"Go back to sleep, sweetheart." Madison smoothed the hair back from the little girl's forehead and kissed it. "Everything's going to be all right." Braelyn closed her eyes again, and the gurney began to move away. Alexei and Madison embraced one another as they watched it disappear behind the double doors.

"Can I get you some coffee?" Alexei asked Madison.

"I'm fine, thanks," she said in a monotone. Several times over the next half hour or so they attempted to engage in small talk, only to quickly slip back into silence. They went back to riffling through magazines. Eventually the physician came out to talk to them.

"The surgery itself is going normally," he told them. "However, I'm concerned about the amount of blood Braelyn has lost. Her blood isn't clotting as it should."

"I knew it," Alexei muttered through clenched teeth.

"But we were told that hemophilia is passed from mothers to sons, not from fathers to daughters," Madison objected.

"That's true," the physician replied. "Braelyn does _not _have hemophilia. However, occasionally a condition is seen in sisters or daughters of hemophiliacs in which the clotting factors, although not entirely absent, are of reduced enough quantity to cause problems in surgery."

"Is she going to be all right?" Madison asked.

"We've administered vitamin K, and she's responding well to it so far," the physician told her. "I don't think she'll need a transfusion."

Alexei's face was contorted with anger and grief as he slammed his fist against the wall. "I should have gotten a fucking vasectomy!"

"Don't swear, Alexei." Madison touched his arm in an attempt to console him. "And please don't wish our daughter away."

"You're right, Maddy. I'm sorry." Alexei began to cry, and Madison held him and tried to comfort him. "I did this to her. It's my fault this happened," he moaned.

"No, Alexei, it isn't your fault. It's no one's fault. It just happened."

"But can't you see? I'm the one who gave it to her! She wouldn't have it if not for me!"

"You gave her _life, _Alexei. She wouldn't be _alive _if not for you."

Sometime later, the physician arrived looking much more optimistic. "Everything went just fine," he told them. "The surgery is over, and the bleeding has stopped. We'll keep her overnight for observation, and check her clotting factors once more before we send her home, but everything should be just fine."

"Thank God!" Madison cried as she and Alexei embraced one another.

The following morning, Braelyn sat in Alexei's lap as the nurse pricked her finger and pressed it several times to a piece of paper, timing how long it took for the bleeding to stop.

"You're such a brave girl," the nurse said with a smile.

"As long as she's with her daddy, she's fine," Madison said, kissing Alexei's cheek.

* * *

><p><strong>Ten Years Later<strong>

"What are you doing, Mom?" Braelyn asked, casually swooping into the room to fall across the sofa. She was tall and gangly like her father and wore her long, straight, light brown hair in a ponytail. The little spaniel, Joy, trotted faithfully right behind her.

"Nothing. Just fooling around." Madison had downloaded the photo of Anastasia at the Romanov tricentennial ball onto her computer and had replaced Anastasia's face with Braelyn's. She had also typed in a caption underneath the photo. It read 'Her Imperial Highness The Grand Duchess Braelyn.'

"Let me see." Braelyn walked over to look at the computer. "Cool! Hey, Dad, check this out!"

Alexei joined her. "Would have been, could have been, should have been," he sighed.

"Stupid Bolsheviks," Braelyn mumbled.

"Never mind." Alexei grinned. "You'll always be a Grand Duchess to me..._shvibzik."_

**Many thanks to everyone who read and reviewed this story. :)  
><strong>


End file.
